Bones in the Fire
by rebma726
Summary: OCs Yarrow and Shark have waited for the core members of Fairy Tail to come back for seven years. Rated M for lemons and other stuff that no innocent should read. NatsuXOC with others. This is a really long story becasue I add some stuff when I want, but I mostly follow the manga. It takes a little while to get to the lemons and the fluff.
1. Homecoming

Fairy Tail Characters belong to Hiro Mashima.

* * *

**PART ONE: HOMECOMING**

"Yarrow, will go walk with me?" Romeo asked one of the older Fairy Tail members. She had light cream colored hair pulled back into a high ponytail that went to her waist that contrasted with her dark tan skin. She smiled and turned to face Romeo.

"I am about to go train with Shark, maybe Raki or Arsack and Briska will take you today," Her cream colored eyes were shining with nothing but love for her nakama.

"They always make me feel like I am not worth the time," Romeo started to pout and crossed his arms. "And they are supposed to protect me from the other guild members. The only ones that are able to protect me is you, Shark, and my dad."

"I'm sorry, Shorty, I would, but I need to get a job before the guys from Twilight Ogre come to get the money we owe them, you should understand that," She leaned back, trying to have him understand that the reason that Fairy Tail has only been able to stay afloat for this long after the main members vanished because everyone goes and gets freelance jobs wherever they can.

"I understand. When will you be back, will you go with me then?" He looked hopeful.

"Yeah, Shorty, I will. If anything interesting happens, I'll be at the normal place that we train," Yarrow gets up from the table, walks to the door and puts on her thigh-high black boots over her dark jeans.

"Nothing interesting ever happens," Romeo pouts and spots Briska in the room and gloomily sulks towards her.

* * *

"Romeo, I thought you made a promise to Yarrow that if there was anything interesting, you would tell her!" Makao asked his son after he spotted him in at a table in the guild.

"The losers from Blue Pegasus came and said that there was a possibility that the island is there still, not that everyone is still alive. I don't think that she would like being hit on by the Hibiki, Ren and Eve that much," Romeo was reading a book, sounding annoyed that his dad was bothering him while reading.

"Don't you think that she would want to go see for herself. You know, Shark would have loved to go search the island too," He was pleading for some sort of reaction from his son.

"It's been 7 years, I don't think they would care," Romeo turned a page just as the door to the guild slammed open. The collectors for Twilight Ogre were back again today.

Something inside of Romeo snapped as he heard that their master wouldn't allow for a month leeway for the payment. "We don't have the money that you want!"

Makao tried to stop his son knowing full well that if every one of the members of Fairy Tail were to fight the collectors, the Twilight Ogres would overpower them. More importantly to Makao, Romeo would defiantly get hurt.

"I'm going to fight! If things keep going like this, it will be Fairy Tail's disgrace!" Romeo tried to communicate that he was serious by making a flame in his hand, maybe the fire would make intimidate them. Maybe it would remind them of a former Fairy Tail member and make them run away with their tails between their legs.

Teebo blew out the flame like it was a candle. Romeo and everyone else disregards what the Ogre says as he draws his weapon and takes aim for the youngest member of the guild, knowing that there was nothing they could do to prevent the attack.

All of a sudden, Teebo goes flying across the room. Makao first looks to see if it was something that his son did. He then he looks towards the door, all of the Ogres are on the floor in an instant.

Standing in the doorway was all the smiles of the members that vanished seven years ago. Natsu and the others sweep into the room, happy to be back with the full extent of their guild. After an explanation of what happened on the island and how seven years had passed and Fairy Tail has fallen, Natsu saw Romeo.

All it took to break Romeo's seven years of emotionless was a single sentence from the fire mage, "Romeo, you're all grown up now!" He burst out in tears, he had a wave of emotions rush over him.

The old guild was back, and there was so much happiness. Just like before. After a while one question lingered on all the minds of the old guild. How was Fairy Tail still around when there is no jobs for them.

Romeo was the one to jump up and tell everyone. "Everyone took jobs but mostly Yarrow and Shark! They have grown so much since you guys vanished. The two of them are known all around the country!" Romeo was in tears. "We should go get them!"

Everyone was shocked to hear this. Yarrow and Shark, they were two little kids when they left, not capable of anything but getting into trouble. In other words, they were perfect Fairy Tail members.

"They aren't here? Why didn't they come to the island?" Erza asked looking around the guild. He always looked up to her and she never realized how much she liked the little guy. He was never fighting with anyone like Natsu and Gray. He and the only other member of the guild that was in his age group had their verbal fights, but that was about it.

"It was my fault, Yarrow told me where they were going, but I didn't think that you would be alive and okay," Romeo said. "They are in a field near Natsu and Happy's place. That is where they always train"

* * *

"You are so awesome!" A little boy with pale skin and dark navy hair looked up at Natsu, Erza, Gray and Gajeel. He was new to adopt the guild from the streets, he doesn't even have his emblem yet. He was barely even old enough to be in the guild. He was only about eleven years old but had big hopes of becoming a great mage. His light blue eyes lusting to be like the great mages in front of him.

While Shark was running towards the group, Happy was trying to get the attention of Carla with a fish, and Lluvia was running up to greet Gray. The fish went flying and landed right where Lluvia foot hit the floor. She went flying towards the group and her elbow made contact with the little boys mouth.

Lluvia stood up quickly, offering words of apology to the boy.

Everyone looked at all of the teeth that now splayed across the floor. Makarov slowly makes his way to the boy and helps him to his feet. The boy looks up and gives Lluvia a toothy grin.

A look of confusion flickered across Erza's face as she looked at the toothy smile of the boy and the floor that had teeth still splayed over it.

"This little boy has an amazing regeneration ability, but please, don't decorate the guild with teeth," Makarov walks away from the little boy and the group. That is how he got his name, Shark.

A little girl about a year or so younger than Shark rushes over to look at him, she can heal bones in herself and in other people. Shark and Yarrow were the only two their age, so they looked after each other, if only a little. Their friendly gesture was quickly replaced by bickering.

Natsu joined in their little argument, not being able to resist the fight, no matter how childish it was.

Natsu remembers the first time he noticed the little girl. Natsu and Gray got into a fight where they both broke a few bones and the little girl named Yarrow timidly approaches them with a reddened face. She touches the spot where they had a broken part of the bone and it healed almost instantly.

* * *

This is one of the shortest chapters that I have written. Sorry about that. Next one soon.


	2. Reunion

I have a lot of this written, so I am just posting as I feel like it. I figured there isn't much in the first chapter, but yeah..  
Enjoy.  
Hiro Mashima owns this.

* * *

**PART TWO: REUNION**

"Yarrow, you need to focus more, if you want to be able to use that in a real fight, it has to be better!" Shark yelled at Yarrow from across the field. The two of them were in a meadow near the house of their former guild mates house.

"Says you, how many bones have you fractured this time around?" Yarrow heaved struggling to stand up.

Shark panted, "Twenty three, but you know that isn't the magic we are trying to improve!" Shark moves his bare shoulder; there was a loud crack sound as his dislocated shoulder resets.

"What about you? Aren't you supposed to be working on projectiles from your fingers? I haven't seen a single one yet." Yarrow taunted.

Some unspoken signal was shared between the two as they both caught their breath and took fighting stances again.

"One last time, only with what we are working on, how about that? Then we will call it a day," Shark held his hand up like a gun and aimed directly at Yarrow.

There was a steady silence in the field. They were both waiting for a sign that meant they had to begin their battle. They had a method of practice where they both would start at a random moment whenever they both thought they were ready.

"Go," they both breathed out at the same time.

Yarrow darted forward, making sure that her movement was unpredictable. Shark followed the random movements that Yarrow made as she made her way across the field at an incredibly fast speed, he mentally cursed himself for telling her to be as fast as she could for this practice.

The tip of his finger opened for a spit second with a low popping sound. A bone shot out of his index finger. Shark cursed the moment the bone left his finger, the bone didn't go in the direction that he was aiming for. The bullet was off by at least 30 degrees. He cursed again and backed up; it was now Yarrows turn to attack him.

As she approached, he evaded with speed that was sluggish compared to the approaching mage. He would occasionally grow a bone out of his shoulder or rib cage to use as a weapon and he would throw them at her. Some of the thrown bones would hit her, but they never seemed to phase her as she approached.

Yarrow finally caught his agile moments as he tripped over one of his own bones that scattered the entire field. It was a rib bone that was round, so when he stepped on it, he fell to the ground. She was quick and precise as she lightly hit him in the jaw with two fingers, and then followed with strikes to his shoulder and sternum as fast as she could.

"Dammit, how come you're already this good at this even though you have only been practicing it for a few days?" Shark growled though a clenched jaw.

"I think that I can only get you because I know how you move. I can't catch anyone else," Yarrow smiled as she stood back, proud of herself for catching her brother-like nakama.

"You're missing the vital action," Shark growled. "The finishing blow."

"Come on, we already know that I don't need to do that, and whatever damage I do to you, I am just going to have to fix it later," She touches his jaw, shoulder and sternum a second time. Shark abruptly pulled a long bone from his forearm and used it as a knife in the close proximity of his partner. He slashed at her midsection, making her dance out of his way.

"Are you really going to do this?" Yarrow jumped back at another lunge he made at her. She had a smirk on her face. "You would think that I would get a thank you for saving you."

"Give me a better reason," He held up his hand again, one finger was puffy and limp. She got the point. She moved again, not evasive, but to attack him. She gets out of arms length from him as to avoid the knife-like bone.

She quickly changes her path and ducks back in close to Shark. She goes in low, to avoid his knife. She goes to jab her fingers into his elbow that is raised like a gun.

Shark uses his hand that isn't pointed at her and shoots a bone out of his finger straight into her shoulder.

There was a loud pop this time as the bone bullet left Sharks finger. A cloud of dust gathered around their area. Yarrow takes this moment to jump back, away from Shark.

"Goddamit, Shark! Ow! Are you trying to kill me? It took up most all of my magic to block that!" The dust began to clear. Where Shark was previously touching skin with his sneak attack, there was a huge bulge made of orange-colored bone on her shoulder.

"Well I think you over-reacted," Shark laughs at his partner. "That thing is huge, and it's iron fused bone. That takes way too much magic to create as is, I don't even make it in practice."

"This isn't an overreaction," The bone formation on her shoulder shattered into large chunks. Normally, when Yarrow destroyed bones, it turned into a fine dust. The attack that he just did shattered her hardest bone defense. Where Shark had pointed his finger, there was a gushing wound, "It still got though all of that. You owe me."

"Oh shit," He took a step forward, worry written on his face. Yarrow shot him a look that was meant as a warning not to come closer.

"Let's see how far it went in," she cringed as she used her opposite hand to stick her nails into the wound and dig the finger bone out of her shoulder. "I would say about four inches. It broke my collarbone. You owe me big."

"I get it, I owe you. Can you help me grow my fingers back now?" Shark said, knowing that his sister would be fine. He held up both hands and showed that both of his pointer fingers were as limp as jell-o.

"No, I have no magic to spare," She sat down in the grass holding her wound with her hand, Yarrow touched the area around the wound, a thin plate of bone loosely formed around the wound. It was her personal first aid treatment, "any change you can help me?"

"Nope, I'm all out too," Shark sat down next to her in the grass.

It was comical that they both would train so hard to become better mages, but they would only get a good job that they would get to use their magic to this extent once or twice every year. Yarrow contemplated this unfortunate fact as she looked to the bright sky.

A few minutes of silence was interrupted when Yarrow sighed heavily.

"I am going crazy," Yarrow said, looking down at the ground and slightly laughing at herself. "I am smelling them again"

"I know you are crazy Yarrow, and it's not the first time you have smelled them while you were completely out of magic," Shark laughed and laid down in the grass.

"This time it's strong, like they are right next to us. Even the ones I thought that I forgot, they are all there," She rested her head on her knees. Yarrow felt that the bleeding stopped in her wound, so she got rid of her make-shift band-aid with a puff of dust.

"And I have heard that before. It has been seven years, I really think that they aren't going to…" Shark started, but the dark skinned girl cut him off.

"No, don't say that, don't you dare say that they aren't coming back," Yarrow barked at him. "You injure me and then you make me sound like a hopeless optimistic."

"Yarrow…?" Shark started, wanting to let his sister like friend know that he didn't mean to insult her by being realistic.

"No, I am tired of all the negative attitudes. I know they are alive," Yarrow goes on She balls her hands into fists.

"Yarrow?" Shark goes on. His tone changed and he is staring at something to the south.

"I feel it in my bones, Shark, even the bones that I have completely replaced since knowing them. They are alive, and they are out there somewhere—"

"Yarrow?!" Shark yelled over Yarrow.

"What?!" Yarrow yelled back at him. She wasn't in the mood for his interruptions. She looks at him, seeing that he wasn't intent on arguing with her. His jaw was slacked as he was looking to the edge of the field they were in. She slowly follows his line of sight and looks to the edge of the field.

"Are you seeing this too?" Shark asked. There was a glimmer of a smile settling on his face.

Yarrow had the same reaction as the regeneration mage. Tears welled up in both of their eyes as they recognized the approaching group of mages. The ones that had disappeared seven years ago.

Yarrow didn't reply to her partner. Instead, she got up and started stumbling across the field as fast as her weakened body would carry her. Shark yelled a bark of annoyance that she would ditch him.

They were all there, Yarrow knew that she smelled them. She knew that they were alive. She knew that they would come back.

When she got close enough, she hugged the closest person. All of the mages joined in, even the hardened Gajeel and Laxus. Shark joined in when he stumbled to them.

"Yarrow, how come you are all beat up? Was Shark picking on you again?! Why is Shark shirtless?" Mirajane asked observing her cuts, bruises and obvious lack of magic. Mirajane glared over at Shark who was in fact not wearing a shirt.

Yarrow spots Romeo with her eyes still glimmering with tears of happiness, "Well, I guess this constitutes being something interesting, Shorty."

Natsu bursts to the front of the group to Yarrow and Shark, "What the hell are you doing to my house?" Natsu glared at the two. "And why are there so many bones in the field?"

Everyone laughs. Yarrow responds by hugging Natsu, happy to see all of her nakama together again, "I missed you guys!"

* * *

More soon, I promise.


	3. Yarrow vs Natsu

Fairy Tail does not belong to me. If it did, I wouldn'y be writing this stuff.

Enjoy.

* * *

**PART THREE: YARROW VS. NATSU**

"So have you two really been doing jobs just for the guild and not keeping much money?" Lisanna asked Shark as they all settled down in the field. It was still very early in the afternoon. Lisanna was impressed on how well the boy grew up in the seven year absence from the guild. He still had a boyish face, but other than that, he mirrored the typical 18-year-old physique.

If she had known that he would grow up this well, she would have paid more attention to him.

"Yeah," Shark blushed and moved away. He wasn't used to thinking of this generation as peers. Remembering how the other members of the guild reacted by the women of Fairy Tail when he was younger.

"Don't you have to get food and pay rent?" Lucy asked, crowding around Shark with Lisanna and Levi. She was still horrified at the amount of money she needed to come up with to get back into her apartment.

"Oh, Yarrow and I, we have a place, we actually live just on the other side of the clearing and into the woods a little ways. Kohaku comes by sometimes and trades with us. Can you guess that Yarrow is a great gardener?" Shark said, making Yarrow roll her eyes. Kohaku was like the parent to them while they lived in the forest. She taught Yarrow how to garden, which Shark never understood that plants need attention too.

Yarrow stopped her conversation with Gildartz to defend herself.

"It's only because his green thumb has turned black, but Shark is a good fisherman," She laughed. It was funny that Shark was a fisherman with his nickname.

"So you two live together?" Bixlow asked sticking out his tongue and laughing, obviously thinking that the two were in a relationship.

Shark and Yarrow take a few steps away from each other. "Yes, but that's because of convenience," Shark said glaring at the tall man.

Erza looks at Yarrow, who stepped closer to her, "Because he sometimes can't grow his bones back quick enough."

"And she can't cook to save her life," Yarrow scowls at Shark for that remark. She thought that she was a decent cook and he had never complained before.

"And he can't clean," Yarrow sees that she was going to have an argument with him. "Leave him alone and he will be wallowing in his own filth!"

"And she can't hunt anything," He took a step closer to her, offended that she would reveal that he was really messy.

"And he can't keep his mouth shut." Their heads met, eerily looking like Gray and Natsu when they are fighting.

"And she can't find good jobs."

"He can't find any jobs that will pay well."

"She can't handle money."

"He can't stick to the rules."

"I can't stick to the rules? Have you looked in the mirror recently?"

"You can't aim for shit, Mr. Jell-o Fingers," Yarrow wiggled her finger at her partner.

"You can't catch up to anyone, Ms. Slowpoke," Shark clenched his fists to hide his jell-o fingers.

"You really going to go there? You better have some fight left in you," Yarrow put her hand on her bicep to show she was itching for a fight.

"Bring it on, little girl, I ain't afraid of you," Shark wiggled his jell-o finger at her. She lunged at him, Shark ducked. Yarrow went flying into Natsu.

Natsu, unable to deny a fight, played along "How dare you!" Gray joined in because he wanted to stop Natsu from joining the fight. They knocked into other people, making them join in on the fun fight.

Erza realized that the cute little Shark and Yarrow are long gone, and they fight just like Natsu and Gray. They used to only have their adorable bickering in the guild. Erza towered over all of the people who joined the fight, "Stop it now!"

Everyone in the dust cloud that formed around the fight stopped at the very second they heard Erza speak.

Yarrow had Natsu in a headlock, Gray and Shark were wrestling, and Gajeel had Fried Justine held above his head with Bixlow grabbing Fried Justines foot. Happy was biting Bixlows head, making him look like a hat.

Lluvia was hovering over Sharks shoulders and was glaring daggers through the back of is head, thinking that they were now rivals for the attention of Gray. There were various other people fighting in the background. But everyone was looking at Erza with terrified expressions.

"You two grew up into great Fairy Tail members!" Natsu said through Yarrows chokehold on him. Yarrow immediately released him and all the other fighting mages did the same.

Erza chuckled and stopped towering over everyone when she knew that the fight wouldn't continue if they were left unsupervised.

They all settled down by sitting down or loosely gathering around in a circle in the field.

"So you two are really the two strongest people in the guild right now, other than Makao-old man?" Natsu asked Yarrow, shocked that she actually had him in a headlock.

"Yeah, when we left, you were a minor medical mage and Shark could just re-grow his teeth," Lucy noted, laughing at how much the two had changed.

Romeo laughs at Natsu and Lucy, "You haven't seen any of their magic yet! They are amazing when they are fighting, especially each other. The team they make has gotten the name of the Horned Devils."

"That's a weird name," Natsu stated, furrowing his brow, "How did you two get that name?"

"Well you being named the salamander is weird. A fire mage named after an animal that can't be away from water for more than a few hours before it dehydrates and shrivels up," Yarrow mumbled back to him. "And we actually live up to our name in that context."

Yarrow and Shark laughed. Natsu intensely stared at Yarrow for a long moment. "Fight me."

Yarrow laughed, "Don't you remember? I just had you in a headlock."

"For real this time, I need to see if you're strong." Natsu jumped up, "I'm all fired up!"

"No can do," Yarrow said shaking her head. At any other time, she would have jumped at the opportunity, she was still thinking that she might be able to fight him in her state, but knew she would lose. She always dreamed of fighting against the fire mage. His face fell into I look of confusion.

"You see, Yarrow and I have just been training for the past few hours and when you guys showed up, we were damn near close to being out of magic," Shark explains.

"I wouldn't be if you actually did what you were supposed to be doing! I won't forget about that anytime soon!" Yarrow elbowed Shark in the gut making him fall over from his sitting position.

Wendy pops up near them, "I can try to regenerate you. We can see if that will work, but you won't be at full power."

"Wendy! Yes, heal her! I want to fight her!" Natsu started stretching. Happy flew around him, giving him a pep talk.

"If you wouldn't mind, Wendy. I want to see if I am close to Natsu's power. I haven't really been able to use my magic with the jobs I have received lately," Yarrow said. "You can ignore the injury on my shoulder, I have that one covered."

Wendy walked over to her and placed her hands on her. She let out a gasp, horrified as she sensed the deep wound. It looked like it would have shattered her collarbone, but the bone was completely healed. She ignored the fleash wound on her shoulder and focused on regenerating her magic. Carla was glowering at the Sky Dragon Slayer, thinking that she should wait to use her magic after being on the island for so long.

"Okay all done. I think I got most of your magic back," Wendy smiled at her after a few minutes of the two sitting still. Wendy was slightly out of breath, but was smiling at her.

"Thanks, Wendy," Yarrow thanked the Sky Dragon Slayer and then walked over to Shark.

"Hey, dummy-face, focus," She was interrupting a story that Shark was telling the other members of the group, but he obeyed her demand with no objection. They always had childish insults for each other, which would mostly come out when they were arguing. Yarrow put her pointer finger on the knuckle that the bone that made the bullet on his right hand connected to. He closes his eyes and focuses on re-growing his finger bones. Even having Yarrow re-grow one of the two would be helpful to him. About a minute later, she pulled her hand back, "You fix the other one, Jerk."

"Woah, did she just re-grow your finger?" Lucy asked grabbing Sharks hand and inspecting it. Levy was poking the side of it. "Did it hurt?"

"I have rapid regeneration, but when the bone is gone completely it takes a lot more time and magic, and it is such a dynamic bone that if I get it wrong I need to start over, Yarrow just makes the outer shell for it and I do the rest. My regeneration abilities don't mix well with her healing ability," Shark was liking all the attention that he was getting from everyone. That attention to his hand dulled down when Yarrow walked away and headed towards the field.

"You finally ready?" Natsu asked as Yarrow took the side further from the rest of the guild. He had a grin on his face as he finished up his stretching.

Yarrow gives him a knowing smirk, "You have no idea what you are in for."

Natsu couldn't even question what she meant before she darted towards him.

"Don't let her touch you!" Romeo yelled as he intently watched the fight unfold. He looked up to both of the fighting mages, not wanting either to lose. He knew that Natsu was too dense to realize what Yarrow was doing with her magic.

"Romeo, that takes away all the fun," Shark laughed as he relaxed into a position to watch his sister-like guild mate fight. "It's more entertaining when they don't know what to avoid. Too bad it wasn't a double battle. I want to fight Natsu too."

Natsu couldn't keep track of where Yarrow went from her initial move. He showed his surprise at the innocent, little Yarrow he thought he knew, "She is fast."

By the time he caught up to her by following her with his eyes, she was only about three paces in front of him. He makes his hands catch fire and yells, "Come on!"

She approaches low and slides under his right arm. She quickly jabs her finger up at his elbow. It was a light touch but it was enough. She darted away before the fire mage could attack her with his own magic.

"Was that it? That didn't even leave a scratch," He didn't look at is elbow, but he could feel nothing wrong with it. He laughed at how the girl honestly intended to fight him with poking him. Poking him would never stop him. Romeos warning finally dawned on him as he felt a strange sensation in his elbow.

"Feel it yet?" Yarrow asked as she started running towards him again. Natsu didn't waste any time, he caught his entire body on fire. Yarrow stopped her advance, seeing that Natsu was taking this seriously. "Well, you spoil my fun."

"What's going on? Why shouldn't Natsu let her touch him? And why has he set his entire body on fire?" Erza turned to ask Shark.

"I think I know what is going on." Lucy chirped in. "From what I have seen and experienced from Yarrows magic, it is that she can create and repair bones. Is it possible that she is making bones in joints that she touches? It would immobilize and disrupt Natsu's main way of fighting because he uses his entire body to create and use his magic."

"You already figured it out," Shark laughed and winked at the blonde, "However, she has only been working on this type of her magic for the past week. There is a whole other level of her magic that makes her terrifying to fight against."

"What are you scared of a little flame?" Natsu taunted Yarrow. She calmly walked closer to him. She stopped a few paces from him. He didn't know what she was doing, but Natsu had a feeling he would see what she was made of, her full power. He stayed put, waiting for her to be the one to move. He normally would be the one to charge in, but he was just too curious.

"It's not that, I really wanted to wait until there was a real battle to show this to you guys. I wanted to show off and be cool in a battle or something," Yarrow sighed and took a deep breath, her eyes fixed on Natsu as she concentrated. Her tan skin started to slowly become lighter and bumpy. Her skin looked like it was stretching in every direction. Right when her skin looked like it was about to start splitting from being streaked so far, little white scales erupted from every pore of her body.

The little spines slowly came out of every part of her body and laid flat against her skin, making a full suit of armor on her skin. Bigger spikes came out of her knees, shoulders, elbows and ankles. A few spikes ripped through her pants, boots and her black shirt. Her fingers became long claws of bone with a reddish tint to the tips. Two horns erupted from her forehead and curved upwards then backwards, looking a lot like a demon.

"And that is how we got the name of the Horned Devils," Shark laughed, jealous that his sister was able to show off her ultimate form and he was still sidelined to re-grow his other finger.

"What is this?" Wendy asked. She saw the scales on the bone-mage and couldn't help but see the image of the innocent Yarrow that she once knew from seven years ago get shattered. This powerful mage was what Fairy Tail in care of. Yarrow was now one of them. Just like the rest of the Fairy Tail mages, she had a monstrous power hidden within her and had discovered it. She was a powerhouse alongside the rest of the Fairy Tail mages.

By the reaction from all of the spectators, Yarrow knew that they no longer thought of her as some young helpless healer mage, but someone that appears to be able to go toe to toe with any one of them.

"Bones," Erza looked at Yarrow with a mixture of shock and horror. "She grew bones as her armor. And it looks like it didn't take up a lot of magic energy to form them."

"It looks a lot like my Iron Dragon Skin," Gajeel commented, seeing the similarities between his own image and what he saw before him now. He grinned. He wanted to see what was stronger, his iron or her bones. Natsu had beaten him to the challenge of the girl.

"Ready to play? Let's see who is stronger," Yarrow darted towards Natsu. They clashed and started fighting hand to hand. Natsu realized that Yarrow wasn't making his joints solidify. In fact this time, she wasn't even aiming for his joints, but aiming right where most people aim in fights, the middle of his bones. The flames didn't seem to be slowing down her attacks and her bone armor looked so heavy. Whenever he landed a hit on her, she barely noticed the impact.

"Why are you not aiming for my joints like before?" He asked her, confused by the bone mage. Nothing she was doing was making sense. Most of the time, he fought mages that were stuck in their own ways of fighting and conformed to one type of combat. Yarrows attacks started off low and stealthy, but now she was straightforward and aggressive.

The hits from the clawed bone punches were hitting Natsu hard. His fire didn't seem to be doing anything to fend off the bone. The bone seemed like the perfect way to get through his cloak of fire.

"Because I don't need to aim for joints all of the time," Yarrow punched at him one last time before retreating a few strides away.

Since Yarrow was now far away, Natsu could aim for her better with his Fire Dragon Roar. As he was taking his stance, something in his body didn't respond, and then all at once, he fell to the ground with a flop.

"You finished already?" Yarrows armor was gone, it was replaces with a cloud of white dust around her. She knew that she got him. She beat him.

"What?" Natsu muttered, "What is wrong with me?"

"Do you remember when I healed your fractured bones when you came back from fighting Laxus in the Magnolia Festival?" Yarrow asked. She knelt in front of him. She placed her thumb on his forehead and closed her eyes. After a moment, she began to take her other hand and move to the different bones that were injured and heal the damage that she caused.

"Yeah, that was helpful," Natsu muttered, slowly remembering the event. They little girl walked up to him and placed her thumb on his head, then poked him in the bones that were broken. She then did that to Gajeel, then all of the other mages that were injured. She was healing their bones. He was still in shock of what just happened.

"I learned to be able to reverse that process and destroy the bone. It is actually much easier to destroy bone than it is to repair or grow additional bones," Yarrow said nonchalantly as she was sensing where all of the places that she fractured him.

"Damn, how come you can't be that nice when you fight me?" Shark said, a little outraged at his sister. He turned his attention to Natsu, "She hit you without making your bones fall apart or detach your muscle attachment and interfere with your nervous system, so she immobilized you without making you be in pain."

"What?" Wendy was shocked. She has been aware of Yarrows ability to heal bones because it was close to her abilities, but she never thought of being able to destroy them. And from what Shark just mentioned, she can control what she destroys and heals very accurately and precisely.

"Well it makes sense. If she makes that armor, she has to have a way to get rid of it," Erza said nodding her head. She was impressed that Yarrow had her armor with her at all times and didn't have to requip it.

Yarrow gets annoyed with Shark's ranting on about how she was being so nice to Natsu and how she was always so mean to him.

"Well, Shark, if you didn't do things like what you did to my shoulder, then maybe I'd be a little nicer to you. Plus, you're used to it by now aren't you?" Yarrow nipped at him, rolling her eyes as she continued to heal the fire mage.

Wendy looked horrified, "You did that to her shoulder? You two were both almost completely out of magic when we got here, what exactly happens when you two train?"

Max takes the chance to explain what makes these two such a great pair. "Shark can create, manipulate, and repair his own body. Yarrow can make, manipulate, repair, destroy, or fracture any type of bone on herself or anyone and anything else. Shark can repair himself at a rapid rate, Yarrow can destroy his bones at a rapid rate. These two are perfect for training with each other. They complement each other in a fight in any sense. Natsu, you just be happy that she went easy on you and Shark wasn't in the battle with her."

"Can Shark do that weird horned armor thing too?" Lisanna asked looking at Shark, his skin was pale so she didn't think that the bone layer would make him look much different.

"That's why we are called the Horned Devils," Shark laughed. Everyone was in shock about the turn of events that just took place. Natsu was beaten by the little girl that they thought would never have a strong battle power.

And it was all finished in under 10 minutes.

* * *

Well, there is the next part. I really wouldnt mind some reviews, tell me if you even like this...


	4. Falling Back in Line

I don't own Fairy Tail.  
I enjoy writing this story. I really do. I hope you like it as much as I like it.

* * *

**PART FOUR: FALLING BACK IN LINE**

After the fight between Natsu and Yarrow, Natsu had jumped up the moment Yarrow was finished healing him. He wasn't about to accept that he was beaten by her.

Yarrow had used a lot of magic to heal both Shark and Natsu, so she had to resort to running away from him. She realized that just because she can make his physical body weakened, his spirit just continues to grow.

Max finally said that he would fill in for Yarrow. From what he saw, he could be able to beat Natsu as well.

Max beat Natsu as well.

Natsu was furious, he attacked the sand mage, giving it his all. He got fed up with all of the comments. Natsu released the Lightnin Fire Dragon Roar, making sure that he missed the sand mage.

Yarrow looked up, curious to see the new power that Natsu showed. She nodded and agreed with Max. There would be no way that she would be able to survive a hit from that attack.

* * *

"Hey, Yarrow" Wendy walked up to Yarrow a few slow days later. She was seated in the main area of the Fairy Tail guild house, looking blankly to the far wall of the guild. Wendy was happy that she was able to receive knowledge from her mother, or at least indirect knowledge.

Yarrow didn't respond, she was just looking off into space. Wendy waved her hand in front of Yarrow's face.

Yarrow twitched because of the startling movement near her face. "Oh, hey, Wendy, I kind of zone out when I'm waiting to do my next job," She laughed.

Wendy looked confused. "How come you have a job, when there is none on the board?" She turned and looked at the empty cork board on the other side of the room.

Yarrow follows her gaze, "The hospitals around here are always looking for some bone healers. Whenever they need help when they have too many people breaking bones, they always welcome my help. As far as they know, I don't belong to a guild though."

"They don't know you're in a guild?" Wendy asked quietly, confused on why she would hide it.

"If the doctors knew that I was in either of the guilds from Magnolia, they would stop accepting my help and paying me for it, especially if they knew that all of the money that I got from their jobs went to maintaining Fairy Tail. Shark is the same way, but he doesn't get many jobs. Hospitals can't use a healer that can't heal other people," Part way through her explanation, her tone softened to the point where she was speaking in a soft whisper. She was ashamed for hiding that she was part of Fairy Tail. Wendy realized this and sat down on the table bench next to her. Yarrow shook off her guilt and smiled at the tiny Dragon Slayer, "I am sure that now you all are back, I can go around flaunting my guildliness anytime."

After a few minutes of them sitting next to each other in silence, "Is it hard? To re-grow bones I mean?" Wendy was able to amplify people's magic regeneration, but not replace someone else's bones with her own magic.

"Once you get the hang of it, it's nothing," At that moment, Natsu stormed into the room, took one look at the empty jobs board and sulked to the table that they were sitting at. He plopped down across the table from Yarrow.

"How do you survive without jobs?" He rested his head on the table. Happy tried to comfort him, but then realized that no jobs for Natsu meant no fish for him. They both rested their heads on the table in defeat. Yarrow and Wendy giggled at the two.

Shark came into the guild holding a piece of paper high above his head, "Yarrow, boredom is over!"

Shark took one look at Natsu and Happy. Yarrow looked at Shark pleadingly, "Fine, Natsu, you can have this job. I went to the other town and asked if anyone needed help. Try not to destroy the village," Shark scowled at Yarrow as he reluctantly gave the paper to Natsu. Natsu was now smiling uncontrollably. Happy began to fly in circles around the fire mage.

"You two can come too," Happy pitched in, noticing that Shark didn't want to give up his job.

"Sorry, Happy. I've got some arrangements at the hospital to help out. Plus, you guys need it more than we do," Yarrow said patting the exceeds head.

"I've got to go set some more traps, now that we won't be able to buy any food for a while," Shark moved rigidly to sit down at the table. "Where is Lucy at?" Shark asked since Lucy was mostly around Natsu ever since she came to the guild.

"She just got back into her apartment, her dad paid for all of her rent for the past seven years in his last letter. The landlady said that I should give her some space for a while," Natsu looked very happy that he had a job to do. He would swing by Lucy's to take her with him later.

"Oh," Yarrow knew when Lucy's dad had died. He had helped her get some jobs in that city a few times, but those were few and far between. "Well at least she doesn't have to worry about rent now."

"Shark, when did you take your shirt off?" Natsu asked pointing at him. At some point he took off his shirt after he sat down. "You didn't take after Gray and randomly strip did you?"

Shark gave him a friendly, sharp toothed smile, "It's hot, there hasn't been this many people in this tiny little shack. I am sure that your hot air is filling the place."

"What was your excuse about all the other times, before they all got here?" Yarrow snickered, noticing that Shark and Grey look more alike now that they are the same age. Shark had more blue hair, and lighter eyes, but they looked similar. They even had their guild emblem in the same spot in the same color. "You would always go around stripping, even when it was cold. Not to mention what you do at home."

Shark sighed, "Why did you have to say stuff like that? The Thunder Gods already thinks we are dating. Probably everyone thinks that, too."

Yarrow rolled her eyes, "It's because I am so irresistible." She flung some of her hair and winked at him.

"Stop that, you're creeping me out," Shark got up and walked towards the door. "I'll be setting traps, away from you crazy people."

Mirajane came over and set down hot chocolate for Yarrow and handed Wendy some too. Yarrow's eyes lit up at the sight of the hot chocolate. She immediately started to drink it quickly.

"Are you two, you know, romantically involved?" Mirajane asked.

Yarrow made a noise, and hot chocolate came out of her nose. She laughed it off, "No, defiantly not. He and I are like siblings. It would be as weird as Natsu and Gray getting romantically involved."

Natsu glared at Yarrow for a moment. He blinked a few times as the mental image popped into his head. "How dare you!" He jumped up and then over the table at Yarrow.

"What?" Yarrow threw her empty hot chocolate at him and jumps back to get away from Natsu's kick, "Give you a funny mental image?"

"I will have nightmares!" Natsu chased after Yarrow, dragging all of the other people in the path into the fight as well.

"They never change," Mirajane said. She picked up a few cups and walked back to the bar where the sink was. "It really is home."

Gray walked in right as Natsu was about to start his fire magic. Natsu saw Gray and got nauseous, "I can't even look at you!" He ran away from Gray to a trash can so he could puke.

"I didn't know that he would have that reaction!" Yarrow cackled as Gray walked up to her. Now that Natsu and Yarrow stopped fighting, the others that were involved slowly disbanded and continued doing whatever they were doing before the disruption.

"What is with him? And why is he running from me? Normally he runs toward me and tries to fight me," Gray was looking curiously at Natsu, who would occasionally glance and him and that would bring up another fit of nausea.

Wendy walked over, holding another glass of hot chocolate up for Yarrow, "Yarrow said something about you and Natsu being romantically involved." Wendy said it as a nonchalant fact. Unaware that Gray was now fighting with Natsu for access to the trash can to puke in.

Both of the girls laughed hysterically as both the boys realized that they were close to each other and then flung the trashcan across the room. They looked like they were both going to start fighting. In unison, they both stopped and then turned away from the other and covered their mouths to contain their lunch.

"Everyone! Can I have your attention?" Makarov came into the front doors of the guild with a grin. Shark was close at his heels, I guess he decided that setting traps could wait, "Our friends from Twilight Ogre decided that they would treat us all to a week at a Spa and Hot Springs!"

Natsu and Gray stopped having fits of nausea to pay attention to the announcement that the master was making. They made sure that they were as far from each other as the possibly could get.

"However, this will not just be a vacation, there will be two missions that we need to carry out as a guild. This is to make sure that the world is aware that Fairy Tail is back, and to destroy a monster that is in a neighboring mountain," He said destroying the monster quietly, but everyone heard it and everyone was excited, monster or not.

"The people that are most capable at the moment, so if you name is on this list, then you are coming," Mirajane said from behind the master, "If you can't or don't want to go, then you are more than able to sit this one out."

Everyone that disappeared seven years ago was on the list. Yarrow and Shark were also on the list, to their surprise.

"How are we able to go? We don't really do that much, just take jobs," Yarrow starts to protest.

"We aren't even recognized as part of a guild," Shark said, agreeing with his sister.

"Modesty doesn't suit you, Makao tells me that your team is known around the country. Plus, you have kept Fairy Tail afloat," Makarov said. He put it in a way that was hard to refuse, "Yarrow, I would like to talk to you for a moment please."

Panic rushed over Yarrow as she glanced at Shark for support. Makarov started to walk to a store room. Yarrow felt like she was going to get scolded, like a school child called to the office. Makarov always seemed like a father figure to her since she was left on the steps of the guild as a child. "Shark, you can come too."

They followed him into a side room that acts as a private work room for Makao.

Makarov sat down on an overstuffed chair, making him look smaller than he was. Even though it was midday, the room was dark. There was a dark, thin curtain that covered the window. The rays of light that came though the tattered curtain exenterated the dust that was in the shack. Makao comes into the room and stood near Makarov.

"I had to tell him, Yarrow," Makao said to her. A fresh wave of panic washed over her.

"Now, I know your secret, Yarrow," Makarov. "My only question is why you kept it secret for so long?"

"I didn't think I deserved the name," Yarrow looked at the ground.

* * *

And I leave you there. I dare you to tell me what you think the secret is...

Anyway, I Have lots of homework, so I am off for a while...


	5. Spa

Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail. I made Yarrow and Shark, they be mine.

Um, well I know that both Yarrow and Shark have abilities that are similar to Kimimaru from Naruto. I didnt realize that until I was making a list of abilities for the two. I'll explain more in a few chapters. I already have up to chapter 21 written, but I dont want to spoile whatever readers that I have...

Well, enjoy.

* * *

**PART FIVE: SPA**

"This is so great! I haven't ever been to one of these before!" Yarrow exclaimed as she helped Natsu off of the train, he was still motion sick from the traveling. Shark was on the other side of Natsu agreed with her with an excited grin.

Before they came to the new city, Natsu had told Lucy that they were needed on a mission. He raced to her apartment to tell her as soon as Makarov was done with his announcement. Despite the current circumstances, Lucy seemed to be calm and otherwise happy.

"I am really surprised, I thought that you guys would come here often since it is so close to Magnolia," Erza said as she struts to the back of the train to help everyone gather their luggage. Shark abandoned Yarrow and Natsu to help Erza unpack.

"Well, it's mostly because we were really busy going on enough jobs to keep the guild in once piece. Now that you guys are back, there is some more slack for us to enjoy the simple things," Shark cheered. He liked being the same age as all of the other members now. And his hormones were obviously showing this fact, he was acting a lot like all of the older men in the guild, chasing after the girls whenever he could and whenever he couldn't chase after them, he just oogled over them.

Yarrow dragged Natsu to the back of the train and set him against a small stone wall near where the luggage was being unloaded. She steadied him and assured him that she would be right back. He fell over a few times, making Yarrow frown and grab Natsu and return him to his default position.

Secretly she was having similar feelings as Shark with the other members that newly returned. She was making sure to be sneaky about her observations and appreciation of the men. She remembered that as a child, she looked up to them and wanted to be a part of their close-knit friendships. There is only so close someone can get when they are eight years younger than them. Now she had the chance to get close to them.

Even then, when she was steadying Natsu, she couldn't help but appreciate the firmness of Natsu's arms. She let her eyes wonder freely to his features.

After making sure that he was safely propped up against the wall, she headed to the luggage compartment. She grabbed her small bag and Natsu's backpack. Happy found her and helped pull his tiny sack out of the train car.

"It still surprises me that you were so dedicated to the guild that you dropped everything and tried to help keep it around," Lucy said to Yarrow when they both freed all of the luggage from the messy train car.

Yarrow blushed a little; she wasn't used to such praise. "Well, I knew you guys would be coming back, so I wanted you all to have a home to come back to. Shark feels the same, even though he won't admit it to you if you ask him," Yarrow threw Natsu's backpack at him when she saw that he was slowly regaining his composure. It hit him in the head with a loud thunk and fell in his lap. Natsu looked up and glared at her and growled that throwing it was uncalled for.

"Well that was sweet of you," Lisanna said to Shark, who was silently listening to Yarrow explain to the girls. Yarrow and Natsu were now clashing heads. She was trying to be nice by getting his bag for him and he wasn't showing enough thanks. Shark looked very surprised by Lisanna's compliment. He had so many choices now that the other members were back, there were so many females that where close to his age.

"Don't mention it," Shark said looking off to the side. He took off his shirt and stuffed it in his bag.

Natsu and Yarrow were looking away from each other with their arms crossed, obviously resorting to childish fighting techniques. Natsu saw Shark and stared at him with a blank expression. He saw that at some point in his fighting with Yarrow, he shed his shirt, "You are too much like Gray."

"Wanna say that again, Flame Brain?" Shark yelled, ready to fight him.

"Is that supposed to be an insult?!" Gray yelled at his team member. The two older members both got over their fits of nausea whenever they looked at each other still. Yarrows comment about even mentioning that that those two were romantically involved still haunted them.

Erza walked over and glared at the three of them, the two older boys were readying themselves to fight with the regeneration mage. Natsu and Gray's battle auras were instantly quelled at Erzas glare. Natsu muttered a defensive praise to Shark, "You're such an nice guy, Shark. No wonder Fairy Tail is afloat still with you."

"Oh, you're too kind, now that you're back, Fairy Tail will regain its glory," Shark knew better than to cross Erza. Natsu cowered from the red head. The effects Erza had on the fighting members was utterly terrifying. Erza started moving up the hill to the location of the spa.

"Yarrow, let's go to the spa, the rooms should be ready by now," Lucy, Wendy, and Levi walked up to her. Everyone else was already starting after Erza to the hotel.

"This will be fun!" Wendy exclaimed pulling her backpack over her shoulder.

* * *

They had unpacked into their rooms, the girls and the guys had separate suites that were adjacent to each other. They were really big rooms with many beds and couches. A bathroom is off to the side of the entrance and a full size kitchen is close to the door. Yarrow was assigned to be in the bed between Levi and Lucy, near the back of the room.

"I just want to get into the hot springs. Who knew that being frozen in time would stiffen your muscles this much," Cana stretched out on the couch, "How 'bout it? We should all go down there now, we don't have to wait till tomorrow, they shouldn't be closing for another three hours or so."

It was true; the hot springs were not supposed to close until two in the morning. They had plenty of time to go to relax. Everyone agreed.

There is separate hot springs for men and women where clothing was optional, then one that was for families where swimsuits were required. Not a lot of people came to the spa in this time of year, and most of the tourists were not in the town due to the threat of the monster, so they had the entire spa to themselves.

When the girls got to the female hot springs they got excited and jumped in childishly. "This is great!"

Yarrow was hesitant to disrobe and enter the springs. Lucy noticed, "Come on Yarrow, you're one of us, come on in!" Those were the words that she wanted to hear from the old members ever since she joined Fairy Tail. She worked so hard so that when they all came back that they would recognize her as one of them. It was all worth it in the end!

"Its….not that, I just am a little self conscious," Yarrow lied and blushed while looking at her feet. She didn't want to let them know how much she wanted to hear that she was accepted, that she was one of them.

"Oh come on, you're with friends! There is no need for that," Cana exclaimed.

Yarrow was still hesitant. "Get in here silly!" Lucy pulled her in, with her robe and everything. Yarrow quickly took off her robe and threw it to the side of the springs so it could sort-of dry before they would have to return to the room. They were all laughing and splashing each other.

"Hey, girls, shut up!" A man's voice drifted through the fence that divided the men and women's

"Gray-sama?" Lluvia snapped her head towards the fence with hearts in her eyes.

All of the girls continued to laugh but this time it was directed at Lluvia's undying love for the ice mage. Lluvia blushed, sank to her nose in the springs, and then floated to a corner of the hot springs. Her body was see through and looked like it was dissolving into the water of the hot spring.

"This is so relaxing" Erza said after the giggles died down.

There was a giant splash from the men's hot spring "Do you want to get burned, Fish Boy?"

"A Shark isn't a Fish!" There was another loud splash.

"I will freeze both of you in the springs! Quiet down!"

"Like you could, Droopy eyes! I would just melt it!" At this point, all of the girls were facing the fence. All of them were expecting that the men could very well destroy the fence and expose the women's side of the springs.

"That is not what a man would do in this scenario! Men battle with their fists!"

"What the Elf said! Want to take this outside!"

"Gray, please put pants on!"

"This is a hot spring! I am allowed to not have pants!" Lluvia turned to try to hide her nosebleed. The girls giggled at her.

There was a sound of iron hitting someone, "Shut up, will you?"

"You're lucky I can re-grow my teeth!"

"Want me to do it again?!" Gajeel almost never got involved with these things. All of the other men of the guild must be being fed by the fight between Shark, Gray, Natsu and Elfman so that they were all lured into joining the quarrel.

"I'm all fired up!" There was another splash and the explosion of water as Natsu got pushed underwater.

"What good is fire when you are surrounded by water?" there was a maniacal laugh come from Gajeel.

"That's enough!" Erza yelled "I said this was RELAXING!" All fighting ceased then from the other hot spring. I am sure that the boys knew that she wouldn't come over there, but they weren't going to push their luck.

After a while, there were small little outbursts from the men's spring, but they died down whenever Erza cleared her throat menacingly in the direction of the Mens springs.

"Ew, I am all pruney!" Lisanna said looking at her fingers. "I don't think I should stay in here for much longer, especially since we are spending the week here. I don't want to get burned out on this on the first night!"

"I'll head back up to the room with you," Yarrow said. She was thinking the very same thing, but she didn't want to be the only one to go back to the room, especially since she just got all of her friends back, she didn't want to abandon them all.

"I'll go too," Levi, Lucy, Evergreen and Lluvia all got out as well. Erza, Mirajane and Cana decided they should stay to make sure that the boys didn't cause any unnecessary damage on their first night here.

* * *

"It's so good to see how much you have grown! Now you can actually be part of the girls!" Levi said as she opened the door to the girl's room. After the little group showered, they rearranged the beds and couches into a circle in the middle of the room to chat.

"So, are you sure you don't have… feelings for Shark?" Lisanna asked after the topic of the boys in Fairy Tail came up.

Yarrow was more prepared for this question then the last two times she was asked that, "Nope, he is like my weird older brother. Why? Do you like him?"

Lisanna turned a deep shade of red, "It's so weird, I always thought he had a certain kind of cuteness to him. But it's so weird that he goes from being younger than me to older than me overnight." She shook her head, trying to shake the blush from her cheeks.

Yarrow laughed, "You think it's weird, now that I am closer to all of your ages, I can't stop looking at some of them!" She tried to counsel the blushing white haired mage. All of the girls laughed at the two of them.

"You better not be looking at Gray," Lluvia stated sternly at Yarrow.

Levi blushed, "I want to claim Gajeel too, no looking at him."

"Tch. I couldn't care less who you look at, or have you been looking at anyone specifically?" Evergreen said, she was trying to not get involved with all of the workings of the females in the guild, but she was just so curious and social to stay out of it.

Lluvia was seething at Yarrow because of the possibility that she was looking at her Gray.

"I won't tell you who I am looking at," Yarrow said defiantly. There was no way that she would let them all know about the weird crush she has, she wasn't even sure if it was a crush, just some weird, distorted form of admiration. She always saw him as a role model, a powerful mage with a heart of gold, but after seeing them all return, a new wave of admiration started to crash over her with intensity than before. She still isn't used to thinking of them as her peers, not just older members of her guild that she had chance of becoming a significant presence in the guild.

"I have a great idea!" Lluvia exclaimed as her eyes became slanted with evil intent. She was going to make sure that Yarrow and all of the other girls were to never look at her Gray, "Let's play truth or dare."

"Yeah!" Lucy sat up on her bed and clapped her hands together. It was a while since she played any games with the girls, even if there wasn't a seven-year gap in the middle of that period.

"I don't like where this is going, I don't like the look in your eyes." Yarrow looked at the fellow female mages.

"I'll go first!" Levi said "Yarrow, truth or dare?"

Yarrow flushed, "Why me?"

"It's because you need to be inducted!" Yarrow got the feeling that no matter which answer she replied, she would have to do something very embarrassing. She didn't want to admit who she was looking at, for fear of disapproval. She decided that the entire night, she would not say truth. It wasn't much different from all the other times she played this game. Never saying truth was her automatic defense in this game.

"Dare," She sighed as color was still expelled from her tan skin. She knew that this wasn't going to be fun for her. 'Hazing' came to mind when she looked at all of the evil expressions on her fellow female mages.

"I dare you to," Levi thought for a moment. "Wear nothing but a swimsuit for or mission tomorrow."

"Fine," Yarrow was used to tearing up her clothes whenever she grew her armor, it would actually be nice not to destroy clothing. Something about her expression got a roar of laughter from all of the other girls that were present. Yarrow was desperate to draw attention from her. She hadn't forgotten the rules of the game. "Lisanna, truth or dare?"

She thought for a moment, "Truth."

"Would you date Shark?" Just as Lisanna was going to answer, all of the other girls burst into the room. They saw a few of the guys tailing one another through the open door.

"Shut the door!" Levi burst and almost tackled Erza into the hallway. Levi was embarrassed that the guys would know that there was a game going on in their room.

Natsu popped his head around the door to look into the girls room. "What are you all doing in a circle?"

Levi tried to force Erza, Mirajane and Cana into the room while keeping Natsu out.

"Yeah what are you doing?" Shark poked his head around the doorframe as well. "You all look like you are doing some sort of cult magic."

"Like you would know, Shark," Yarrow laughed. She was enjoying watching Levi try to cut off their room from the guys and bring the other girls in. All of the other girls in the room didn't try to help Levi. At the sight of Shark, Lisanna blushed and hid her face behind a pillow.

"This is making me curious, what are you all doing?" Natsu tried to take a step into the room. Levi focused mostly on Natsu now that the other three girls were mostly in the door.

Shark follows Natsus lead, seeing that the only girl that was putting up resistance was occupied. Lisanna suddenly jumped up and pushed both boys out into the hall.

"Are you guys planning on ambushing us in the pillow fight?" Natsu asked before the two girls could close the door.

"I bet that is it! But we will stay up all night waiting for that attack! You won't know what will hit you!" Shark yelled and both of them joined the other boys into the room next door. No doubt to plan a counter attack or another plan "Charge" from Natsu.

Levi sighed in relief as she shut and locked the door.

"What exactly are you all doing?" Erza asked. "Are we going to join in the pillow fight?"

"We didn't want to boys to know that we are playing truth or dare," Lisanna whispered to the new comers.

"I guess there will be another night for the pillow fight, I think that this game of just girls will be more entertaining in any case," Erza got an evil gleam in her eyes. She sat down in an open spot. The other two girls mimicked the motion.

They all stayed up late playing the game.

The boys waited about an hour before they gave up on their pillow fight goals. Once in a while, there would be a knock on the door from either Gray, Shark, or Natsu. They would pressure the girls to open the door, since all other entries were blocked and guarded.

The last time, it was Gray who realized that they weren't conspiring against the boys in a pillow fight attack. After that, he must have told all of the other boys because they stopped trying to lure them out of the room to join the fight.

Most of the girls dares had to do with wearing ridiculous clothing the next day or to confess attraction to objects. Cana had to address a lamp as her lover for the duration of the game and make it a sandwich whenever a boy knocked on the door. There were lots of sandwiches, enough to give each of the girls a sandwich and a half. All of the girls were having so much fun bonding.

* * *

After everyone decided that it would be best to go to sleep, Yarrow still stirred.

She got up from her bed and silently walked to the refrigerator. She knew this would happen. She never felt right sleeping anywhere other than her own space in her cabin. There was nothing inside the fridge, all of the sandwich material was used during the game to present to a lamp.

Yarrow pulled a blanket off of her bed to use as a jacket, grabbed some money and slipped out of the room.

Yarrow couldn't believe what was dared to wear the following day. She wasn't that self conscious, but there a lot of new emotions were stirring inside of her and she wasn't completely sure of how to deal with them.

This was proper hazing, and all of the other female mages knew that. In any case, Yarrow was proud that she took revenge on Levi for initiating the different attire. She made her way to a convenient store down the street that was still open.

She picked up a pint of milk and a roast beef sandwich. She was surprised that the place was open this early in the morning, since it was probably around four. The old man was groggy and silent other than the mechanical greeting he chirped at her when she entered the store.

She made her way back to the spa. She was going to slip back into the room to eat, but then she looked at the noisy-looking plastic that surrounded the sandwich. Instead of going back to the room where she would wake up all of the other female mages by eating her sandwich, she found her way behind the spa.

There was a little patio with a short, thick stone fence that overlooked an orchard or garden, it was some sort of greenery area that couldn't be distinguished in the dark of the morning. She sat down on the fence and enjoyed her milk and part her sandwich.

"You can't sleep either, or is this part of the plan to attack me with pillows?" Yarrow heard a voice behind her.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she hadn't heard him approach. Her face flushed, she was not expecting to see another person awake for the rest of the night. She looked to her left to see the rose-haired mage to sit down next to her.

"Nope I normally don't sleep much away from home. And there are no pillows out here, so you're safe for now," Yarrow smiles. She wasn't about to tell him about the questions and dares that flew between all of the female members that night.

Natsu was silent for a while, looking out at the orchard with Yarrow. "I haven't been able to sleep well since we got back from the island. I end up just walking around with nothing to do. Happy is always asleep, so he isn't much company," Yarrow looked at the fire mage surprised. She never thought that Natsu would come right out of the blue and admit that something was wrong. "When we first got back from the island, I was so tired. But after you and I fought, I guess I couldn't manage to sleep."

That sudden reveling really surprised Yarrow. Why would he not be able to sleep after fighting her? What confused her more is that he was this open with her. Whenever she thought of Natsu from seven years ago, he would always act before talking, "Well it could be because you were frozen for seven years, and your body took that as a really long sleep?" Yarrow suggested, shrugging her shoulder.

"That could be it, but I am the only one of us that can't sleep." Natsu ran his hand though his hair with an odd smile on his face. She had avoided the topic all game of who she was looking at the most, and here he is sitting next to her in the middle of the night. His little motions like that sent her heart racing, "Are you going to finish that?"

Yarrow gave him the remaining half of her sandwich and chuckled. "Next time, I'll get a sandwich for you too."

They sat there for a while chatting. Yarrow would fill him in on some of the things that were happening in the world and what has happened in the past seven years. She left out everything about the Magic Games, she would leave that up to Makao and Makarov to break the news to the rest of the guild.

It was hard to avoid the status of Fairy Tail with Natsu, he would always ask about other mages and if any other powerful forces arose while he was gone. Yarrow would always counter by talking about food. He always seemed to be distracted with even a mention of food before he disappeared, and that hasn't changed.

After what seemed like hours, "I think that I am going to see if I can sleep," Yarrow said pulling her blanket closer around herself. The realization of how cold the early morning was finally broke through her skin as she shivered.

"We will walk back together," Natsu stood up first and offered a hand and a grin to her to help her off of the fence. Yarrow took his hand and jumped off the fence. She was trying very hard to stop the blood from rushing to her face.

They got the hallway where they were staying. Natsu waved at Yarrow and walked back to the men's door. "Hey Natsu?"

"Yeah?" He asked. He was pulled the key out of his pocket as he looked to her.

"Tomorrow, be prepared," Yarrow said as her face flushed as she remembered the outfit she was dared to wear. Lucy and her kinky tasted spirits changed her dare from a swimsuit. Loke suggested it, and Virgo hunted down an outfit.

Natsu smiled he exclaimed, "I'm always prepared!"

Yarrow made the "shhh" motion. "Let's hope you are, this is a different thing to be prepared for."

* * *

I didn't realise how many dividers I had in this chapter. Wow.

Tell me if you like it, I haven't got a single message on this site. I don't even know if people are reading this!

Till next time,

Amber


	6. Mission

Oh goodness! I really hate the week before Thanksgiving break! I had five major assignments due today and I barely got them all finished. I am looking forward to having the break to work on my other homework and of course, editing and adding to my stories.

Well, here you are. Enjoy.

* * *

**PART SIX: MISSION**

All of the men were lost when the women strolled up to them outside the front doors of the spa. They looked at the group of women that were in their guild. They were all wearing...different things. Yarrow tried to warn Natsu, but obviously, it didn't work out well.

Makarov was holding back the blood that was threatening to spill from his nostrils. Scratch that, almost every man that was there was trying to hold back blood from spewing from their noses.

The truth or dare party that occurred the previous night left almost all of the women in skimpy outfits.

Levi had a dominatrix jumpsuit from the spirit world, complete with Lucy's whip. Yarrow was proud of her dare to the Bluenette for starting this ordeal and being able to get her back from making her wear something revealing. Lisanna had a skimpy schoolgirl outfit on and was wearing Yarrows thigh-high, buckled boots. Cana was in her underwear. Lluvia made her entire body transparent, except for the silhouette of her naked body. Lucy wore a maid outfit that Virgo let her borrow. Evergreen was wearing a bunny outfit that Erza requiped from her stash for her. Mirajane was in a swimsuit. Erza was wearing one of her more revealing armor sets. Wendy was declared to be too young to be making anyone think that she is not innocent, so she escaped because of the protests of Carla.

Yarrow, well she was subject to many changes of attire. She refused to say "truth" last night, so she was stuck in a skimpy S&M outfit that barely covered anything, complete with a collar and a chained leash. She was also to address every male, and Erza as "Master."

Out of them, Erza, Mirajane, Cana, Lucy and Evergreen were the only ones that were actually acting normal and comfortable in their attire. The other girls were fidgeting or trying to cover up. Yarrow was trying to stay near the back of the group. She was unsuccessfully hiding behind the transparent Lluvia.

After a few agonizing minutes of silence, Levi stepped forward. The tight plastic jumpsuit squeaked when she moved. "Can we just get this over with?"

All of the girls silently agreed and broke into a nervous laughter. They slowly started their trek towards the mountain that was cursed with a monster.

Most of the guys made sure to walk behind the women, one could guess why. Yarrow fell back to ask what the plan for the mission was. She stopped by Natsu, who seemed the most focused, despite the outfits.

"So what kind of monster is this?" She asked Natsu. At the end of her sentence, all of the girls in front of her stopped, turned and glared at her. Yarrow added with poison, "Master Natsu?"

Natsu avoided looking at her and coughed when she called him "Master Natsu," he looked over to the forest on the opposite side of him. "Um, well I don't know, when you girls walked up, um, Makarov was telling us about it, but um… we got… um distracted."

"I see, Master Natsu. One would only expect to be distracted with females, Master Natsu." Yarrow said. She didn't like addressing people as master. Especially him at the moment, the new emotions that she was having for the Fire Dragon Slayer wasn't helping her nerves. She paused a moment and continued, "If you'll excuse me, Master Natsu, due to conditions your servant previously agreed to, I must address you in a specific way. Master Natsu, it is very awkward for your servant, so I am requesting to leave your presence." The whole time she was speaking, Erza was glaring at her as if to warn her that if she deviated from her agreement, she would be executed.

"Oh, what did you girls DO last night? Here we thought that you were planning a stealth attack with pillows!" Shark bantered at Lisanna. She was beet red under the eyes of Shark. Lisanna was dared to follow Shark around. That was a dare from her dear older sister. Shark's outburst distracted Natsu from answering Yarrows request.

Mirajane stopped and looked at Shark with poison her gaze. "You do not ask a lady what she did last night." Shark didn't press any further.

"Can I please have permission to leave, Master Natsu?" Yarrow pleaded, she would rather be somewhere where she wasn't required to keep calling him 'Master'.

"Oh, what happened to you Yarrow?" Shark came up. "You have never been this…submissive."

"Did you not hear what Mirajane said…Master Shark?" She was glaring daggers at all of the females. She never wanted to refer to her brother as a 'Master'.

Shark was surprised at this too. He got an evil smirk. "Servant, carry me up the mountain." He was going to sap this for all it's worth.

Yarrow stopped, Erza stopped. "Master Erza, must I carry him?"

"Carry on," Erza said with a demonic laugh. "Hazing" popped into Yarrows mind once again as she heard the laughter from the females.

Shark jumped up on Yarrows back. "YAH!" he exclaimed while kicking her thighs. Yarrow didn't respond.

"Master Natsu hasn't given me permission to leave his presence," Yarrow responded. She was trying to find an excuse to not have to run up the mountain. She looked at Natsu to try to tell him that she doesn't want to. Natsu was still looking away, so he didn't see this pleading look.

"I don't care what Natsu has or hasn't said, YAH!" Shark laughed hysterically.

"Master Shark, if you insist on something like that from your servant, it will not be easily achieved. Your servant will grow an uncomfortable bone into your butt if you request such things from her." Yarrow replied with a twisted smile. All the people within earshot of that conversation chuckled.

"Servant, you may put me down." Shark said, suddenly worried about his personal safety.

Yarrow dropped him right on his butt on the wide dirt trail. "Don't pull those shenanigans again with me, Master Shark." The twisted smile never left her lips.

After a while, everyone got used to the ludicrous attire of the females and were happy to mingle like normal. I'm sure the men had to control their…urges even after they got used to it. Gajeel seemed to be glued to Levi in her squeaky outfit.

"Well, now that everyone has adjusted, the monster is on the next mountain," Makarov mentioned. "Reports say that it can change shape, one moment it can be a tiny little mouse. Then the next moment, it could be as big as Lullaby was."

A shiver went through the members of the guild that faced Lullaby. "Master Makarov, how will we know when we run into it?" Erza asked.

"It hates trespassers, if you haven't noticed, there are no other people on this highway. No carriage provider would take us into this territory. We don't need to look for it. It has probably been watching us for a while now."

As if on cue, an animal appeared on the road at the top of the hill. It was the shape and color as a fox.

"That's it!" Natsu yelled and zoomed ahead of everyone else. As he approached the animal, his hands caught on fire. As he got nearer still, the animal didn't seem to move. Right when Natsu was about to attack it, it darted away into the underbrush of the nearby forest. Natsu was about to chase after it but then saw a bird in a tree and turned his attention to it.

"Can the monster really do that, or did you say that to get entertainment out of Natsu?" Gray asked the master of the guild, chuckling at the impulsive mage.

"The monster can do that, but it will be pitch black in whatever form it takes," the old man said as he watched Natsu rampage, he wasn't sure if he should laugh or sigh at the boy.

"Why do you have all of us here then, if the monster is so easily identified?" Evergreen asked. She was sporting the bunny suit very well.

"We are mostly still very weak from seven years of inactivity," The old man stated, "We better have our full force than to leave it to a few who might not make it."

"Natsu! Did you hear Master? You can stop trying to kill all the wildlife!" Lucy yelled up the trail to her partner.

Natsu started to pout and waited for the rest of the group to catch up to him. He was at the crest of the hill, and it overlooked the mountains. There was a large clearing right on the other side of the crest.

"Shall we rest a moment?" Master Makarov said, it wasn't a question. He was out of breath. Most all of the members were out of breath. Yarrow looked back the way they came. They were at the top of a very large, steep mountain and the town that they were staying in was so small that she could barely see it.

"Master Erza, look how far we are from the town," Yarrow said to the closest person to her.

"I smell something weird nearby," Gajeel said. Natsu nodded and agreed with his fellow Dragon Slayer.

"Yarrow, Shark. You will stand back with me. You are only to get involved if there are no other people that can attack. We need to practice using magic again." Makarov addressed the only two members that weren't making their debut.

Yarrow and Shark slowly agree. The men of the Thunder God team weren't there, they opted out of joining them on the mission and the vacation. They said that they were going to travel around with Gildartz to spread that Fairy Tail was back for the week.

A tiny squirrel with long tassels on its ears hopped out of the forest almost right in the middle of the group. It was pitch black and had glowing white eyes. Everyone looked at it in shock for a moment, and then the reality of it sunk in.

Both Gajeel and Natsu were the first to attack it with their respective Dragon Slayer abilities.

The little squirrel scurried away before either attack could land. Yarrow and Shark watched from a distance as the monster transformed into a huge Elk shaped creature. It was about the size of a two story house.

Little did the monster know, making itself bigger was making it easier to target by the two active Dragon Slayers. Erza, Gray, Lluvia and Lucy all jumped to help out as Natsu and Gajeel drove it into the clearing.

Before long, there was a small quell in the battle. A tiny little part of the monster jumped off of the main animal. This one transformed into another elk animal of the same size. The rest of the group ran to back up the ones already fighting.

"The monsters name is Aberts," Makarov stated after watching as the second team swarmed the second monster. "It has the ability to divide itself many times. Nobody knows how many times it can divide. All of the derivatives need to be taken down that appear here."

"Master Makarov?" Yarrow began to ask about the origin of the monster.

"It is a monster that Zeref created in his earlier days." Makarov answered the question that Yarrow was going to ask him.

Lucy summoned Taurus to fight for her. He was swooning over all of the women in questionable clothing. It took him a while to regain his composure. Mirajane and Erza both abandoned the dares they were subject to and transformed or re-quipped different attire.

Natsu took a direct buck from the giant monster that he was fighting. There was a moment that his team took to regain their battle sync. Natsu was surprised at how easy he took the buck from the monster, thinking that the animal was weak for its size.

"The only reason why it split is that it saw a large group on the sidelines and wanted to entertain us all in a sense," Makarov stated. "There will be more as long as there is someone able to fight on the sidelines"

At that moment, another tiny animal jumped off of each of the monsters fighting. The tiny monsters scurried right to where the trio of inactive mages was standing.

* * *

I think that I will reward anyone who messages me with a story or something...? Can I even do that?  
In any case, have a happy thanksgiving! I cant promise that I will post much this next week...


	7. Horned Devils

I hope that you all (whoever reads this) had a good Thanksgiving. I had so many relatives in town!

Well, Hiro Mashima owns the characters of Fairy Tail. Etc...

Here you go...

* * *

**PART SEVEN: HORNED DEVILS**

"Shark! Yarrow!" Makarov yelled as the two monsters started to transform into the hideous elk-forms that was keeping the rest of the guild busy. These two were smaller than the other two, but were still bigger than any elk that occurred naturally.

"Shall we, Master Shark?" Yarrow said, her skin started rippling as she grew bones out of her skin. She took her preferred form; the borrowed outfit was kept safe because it didn't cover much of the areas that she grew horns of. It actually didn't cover much to begin with.

"Hell yeah, finally some action!" Shark said. His pale skin tightened as his muscles grew bigger and he started to grow tiny scales on most of his skin, his hands and face were spared from the tiny scales.

Since Shark could do rapid regeneration, he took a few years to build his muscles, then he returned to his normal muscle mass. Since his body had once had the muscles, it was considered just regenerating to a previous state. Two white bones peeked out of the dark blue hair on the top of his head and curved forward creating an open halo around his head. An elongated bone started to grow from his left shoulder. He grabbed it and obtained his weapon.

They stood silently as the monsters approached the two of them.

"Ready?" Shark asked. His voice was slightly shaking, "This will be the first time we show off to the rest of the guild."

Yarrow smirked. She looked at her fellow, fighting nakama. She has her worries, but being surrounded by her nakama, she felt a wave of confidence. "I'm all fired up, Shark."

That was one of the only times that she got away with not addressing anyone as "Master." They both wait for the others breathing to calm.

"Go," they muttered in unison as they both darted to their respective Aberts monsters. Yarrow reaches hers first and attempts to connect a punch anywhere on the animal. She has a few successful attacks as she demolishes a few bones in the front legs. There were bones sticking out of random parts in the animals forelimbs, subject to the demolishing force of Yarrow. She still wasn't sure where the major points of weakness were on these monsters, but immobilizing these animals was a good start.

Shark caught the monster with his bone lance by the neck. He pulls the bone lance out of the animal. He makes the scales on his forearm stand up on end, making a blade out of his bone.

The monster reared up on its hind legs and struck at Shark. He quickly moved forward, using the sharp lance as a shield by propping up the animal coming down on him as he darted from the attack. He swung his sharpened arm across the exposed belly of the monster. The monster made a bellowing noise at its attacker. It backed away from the offensive threat in front of it.

Yarrow saw that her monster was already slowing down with the broken front limbs. She could see in its eyes that it was appalled that it was being beaten by a single person. She saw in the corner of her eye that Sharks monster was rearing up again. He was slashing at it with combination attacks from his lance and his sharpened scales. She pushed her monster back a little.

"Shark, now!" Yarrow yelled to her partner. She turned away from him. She shielded her face with her armored arm, but kept the monster in sight. She more felt than saw Shark crouch over and project some flattened rib-like bones out of his back at both his and her monsters. Her monster took only a moment to fall to the ground, she was confident that it would not be standing back up again. She rushed over to it and grabbed its head and fractured its skull into its brain case. The animal made a moaning sound as its life left the planet.

Shark did a similar motion by shoving his lance into eye socket of the creature. There were many spikes sticking into both of the monsters. Shark looked to see how his partner was fairing against her monster. He saw it was on the ground with the final blow delivered. He just grinned at her. They both shifted their attention to the two remaining monsters. Yarrow went to see if she could help with Natsu, Gajeel, Gray, Lluvia, Erza and Lucy. By the time she got over to them, the monster was a charred pile of flesh curtsey of Natsu's Dragon Roar.

They all grin at each other and look to see the last remaining monster. Elfman was in his horned lizard soul takeover, so he looked a lot like Yarrow and Shark's bone armor forms. The animal fell just before Shark could arrive at the scene. Shark smiled at Elfman and high-fived him, he approved of his appearance.

"Hey, Yarrow, I think that there is another Horned Devil to add to our namesake!" Shark yelled. Elfman grinned and returned to normal. Yarrow turns all of her armor to dust and it falls around her like a tiny explosion of white dust.

"That smells horrible!" Gajeel exclaims referring to the bone dust that his sensitive nose just inhaled. Even Yarrow thought that it smelled weird, she tried to convey it by ginning awkwardly and making a nervous chuckle.

"Oi! Yarrow!" Shark yelled. He grew most of his scales out and they plopped around him with tiny plink sounds. Sometimes, he doesn't have good precision with his expelling of his armor and he grows a bone and it gets stuck. He was frozen in a high-five position because some of the scales in his arm were enlarged and he is unable to get dispel it from himself without expelling his skeletal bones, "Yarrow!"

Yarrow slowly made her way to him, "Yes, Master Shark?" She was having fun with the dare she was subject to now. Knowing that she had a power over her brother.

"You damn well know what's wrong," Shark growled at her.

Yarrow laughed. The rest of the group congregates around the two. "Whatever do you mean, Master Shark?"

"I'm stuck like this, feather-brain," He snarled as he said the childish insult to his sister.

"I wouldn't blame her if she didn't help him," Lucy stated. "It's nice knowing that one of the troublemakers is… retained, if only half of him."

"Yarrow, I didn't mean it!" Shark's tone softened, knowing that his sister would leave him like that. "Please!?"

"Hold your breath or something," Yarrow smiled and flicked his shoulder, in the same fashion that her armor came off, Sharks shoulder was freed. After the cloud settled on the ground, Makarov came to them.

"I am sorry to say this, but we are lacking a lot of the firepower that we used to. I brought Yarrow and Shark along for a comparison," He put a reassuring hand on Sharks freed shoulder, "You two did fine, and your teamwork is superb." He added as he moved to the center of the group.

"From what Makao told me, Shark and Yarrow have about the same power as Natsu and Gray did before we disappeared. We need to focus on regaining our magic stamina!" He was received by a large cheer from Fairy Tail. The monster was defeated and they were more than willing to fight more to regain their status in the world of mages.

They started their walk back. "Natsu," Makarov called to the Dragon Slayer. "You owe Yarrow a thank you."

"Oh so the old man noticed it?" Shark mentioned. Yarrow groaned, she thought that she would be able to keep it secret for a little while longer.

"He did? Oh man, I thought that I was going to be able to get away with it!" Yarrow pouted. She waited a few seconds, then remembered her dare, "Master Shark."

"Why do I owe her thanks?" Natsu was confused.

Makarov hit him hard in the chest. Natsu barely felt it, "That is why." Natsu still looked confused.

Lucy had a moment of epiphany. "She hardened your bones!"

Yarrow smiled from in front of the group. They really did find out. Damn that Makarov and Lucy. Natsu was still confused. Lucy explained that when Yarrow and he fought, she added a layer of hard bone to his bones. Or that is what she speculated.

"Yarrow, what exactly did you do?" Lucy asked. She was only guessing.

"Pneumatic, iron-fused bone," She said simply.

She was met with confused faces. "Pneumatic bones are what are in birds, it's a strong, but light type of bone. It's also the type of bone that is suspected to be in Dragons. Iron-fused is when there is lots of iron in the bone, like beavers teeth. It makes the bone darker, making it look orange or red. It makes it slightly heavier than just pneumatic bones, but it makes it ten times stronger. You didn't even notice, did you, Master Natsu?" He looked up at her. He was still dwelling on the fact that she gave him bones that are supposed to be that of a dragons. He smiled at her.

"You really are a devil," He grinned at her. "Thank you!"

They made their way back to spa with the heads of two of the monsters. The one that Yarrow smashed wouldn't be good to transport and the charred one wasn't preserved well either.

"What are we going to do with them?" Lucy asked when the group got to the front steps of the spa. Nobody really wanted to take the smelly, creepy looking heads into the spa.

"I will present them to the town leaders at town hall and receive payment," He said while taking the two heads with him.

"Well I guess we can relax?" Levi stated the question more of a declaration. She was itching to take her plastic jumpsuit off. She could barely move during the battle. Gajeel almost never left her side during the trip back, obviously liking the change of style of the bluenette.

"Wait!" Erza looked menacingly at some of the women. Yarrow took a moment to step back from the group. Natsu followed her a few steps away from the rest of the group.

"What's going on?" Natsu asked. He took it from last night that Yarrow will do things that will prevent awkward situations for herself. Except her outfit, Natsu looked away and tried to hide a blush from her when he noticed her outfit again.

"Watch, you'll get a nice dose of entertainment," Yarrow had a smirk on her face. At that moment, there was a collective movement from some of the ladies. Lisanna kissed Shark, Levi did the same with Gajeel, Lluvia with Gray then she fainted after touching him. All of the guys that were subject to this mass movement were all completely frozen. Yarrow burst out laughing. Natsu (and most all of the other males) jaw hit the ground.

Yarrow cackled loudly enough to gain the attention of Erzas death glare. "You laugh now, Yarrow. Wait until we figure out who you are eyeballing."

"Not going to happen. I will never willingly offer up that information, Master Erza," Yarrow pulled the leash attached to her collar and twirled it. "I've already embarrassed myself enough, don't you think?"

Gray was hovering over the fainted Lluvia, coxing her back to consciousness. Levi ran into the spa, her outfit squeaking the whole way. Gajeel was still frozen with a look of shock on his face. It was sweet knowing that there was a chink in the Iron Dragon Slayer's armor. Lisanna turned bright pink after not getting a solid reaction from Shark. She ran in a different direction that Levi ran.

"What just happened?" Natsu muttered. Lucy walked up and stood by him and Yarrow.

"Girls getting together, this is what happens," Lucy said, joining Yarrow in a laugh.

Cana stuck out her tongue and walked into the spa, she wasn't interested in the puppy love of her guild mates. She went straight for the bar in the lobby.

* * *

Till next time,

Amber


	8. Insomniacs

Well, hello all. I felt like it was due time to post another chapter. I wont post till about this time next week, so yeah.

I dont own Fairy Tail, but Yarrow and Shark are mine!

* * *

**PART EIGHT: INSOMNIACS **

Yarrow was walking around the outside of the spa that night again. She couldn't sleep, just like the previous night and every other night that she spent away from her home and her own city.

And just like the previous night, she went to the corner store and picked up a pint of milk, a chocolate bar and a sandwich. The clerk eyeballed her as the recognition of the previous night's customer flickered across his face. She even had the same blanket around her because she didn't have a jacket. They made minimal small talk.

Yarrow munched on her chocolate bar as she walked to the back patio of the spa. She was surprised to see that her fellow insomniac mage was already there.

She honestly wasn't expecting to see him the second night in a row, especially after a long day with a battle. She silently climbed up onto the fence next to him. She took another bite of her chocolate bar and tossed the plastic-wrapped sandwich lightly to him.

He caught it and looked at her as she washed her chocolate bar down with some milk.

"I told you I would bring you one," Yarrow said simply she slightly shrugged her shoulder. She was going to eat it after she had her fix of chocolate, but figured she made a promise to him the previous night.

"Thank you," Natsu silently exclaimed. "For the sandwich and giving me bones of a dragon."

The second thank you caught Yarrow off guard, making her choke a little on the dwindling milk in her carton, she recovered, "Anytime, you're nakama."

"You did it and I didn't even notice it, I thought that the attacks of the monster were just weak, I had no idea that you could do that," Natsu said, the sandwich was already half gone. "I'm not so bummed out about losing to you in our first fight."

"In all fairness, I have had seven years to adapt my magic to use it how I want to. So you shouldn't have been bummed by losing to me in the first place," Yarrow flipped her hair with her hand and winked at Natsu playfully.

"Have you changed anyone else's bones?" Natsu asked though a mouthful of the sandwich.

She leaned back on her hands on the thick fence, "I started with Shark, but his regeneration and my bone magic aren't compatible with each other too often, so I only help him every once in a while. But then I started with changing Romeo's bones a year or so ago. Makao was worried that his son was too fragile because he kept running off on his own. The Twilight Ogres would ambush any and all of the Fairy Tail mages whenever they were seen alone."

Natsu looked up and swallowed a bite of the sandwich, with a slight fire in his eyes "Romeo was getting picked on?"

"Not much recently, but everyone was subject to their reign of terror," Yarrow sighed. She might as well tell him what happened to the guild in the last two years. "But that is all over now!"

"So, does any of the other members here have different bones?" Natsu asked, the fire in his eyes quelling, but not disappearing.

"A few of the girls have a few bones coated, but that is because we are in the same room," Yarrow was reminded of the touchy-feeling dares that happened the previous night. There were a lot of dares to kiss each other. She was beginning to wonder about the relationships that all the girls shared. At least she took advantage of the situation to protect her nakama, no matter how unfair their hazing was.

"So I am not the only one?" Natsu asked, shoving more of the sandwich in his mouth.

"You were the easiest," Yarrow smiled and looked at the sky. It was significantly earlier in the night than their last encounter. Everyone decided to hit the sack right after their return from the mission, so it was still early in the night, probably only 11. Yarrow had to wait until the blushing Levi fell asleep before she dared to try to sneak outside.

Levi kept her mouth sealed about what happened between the end of the mission and her late return to the room, "I haven't been close to many of the other people."

Natsu was quiet for a moment. Yarrow moved uncomfortably. She changed into loose fitting pants and a black tee-shirt when she was still in the room, but there was still something irritating her skin, she just couldn't figure out what it was.

"So, don't yell at me like Mirajane yelled at Shark," Natsu was looking at his sandwich. "Why exactly were all of you dressed weird, and then that whole weird…thing at the end of the mission?"

Yarrow chuckled. She was silent for a moment before she responded to him, "We were playing truth or dare last night."

"So that is why some of the girls did that weird thing out front," Natsu said chuckling with the bone mage. Suddenly, a lot of events that day made sense to him.

"Look, Natsu…" She was about to tell him about the urgency that he not tell any of the other guys. Sudden panic of what would happen to her if Erza found out that she told one of the guys what they did last night. Natsu cut her off before she could finish.

"So you were dared to wear what you wore today?" Natsu had finished his sandwich. His eyes still didn't stray to meet hers. They were fixated out into the orchard area in front of them.

Yarrow laughed, blushing a little that the fire mage noticed what she wore and was now quizzing her about it now, "Yeah, at first it was supposed to be a swimsuit, then underwear, then some other things, and it ended with the…outfit I had on. I was the one to dare Levi in her getup today."

"Was that all you had to do for your dare?" Natsu asked. His eyes were gleaming in curiosity. He had a mischievous grin on his face as he looked into the orchard.

"I had to address all the men and Erza as 'Master.' I escaped that last shebang because I refused to pick truth, I wasn't about to let them do whatever they wanted with the information that they were asking for. They really thought that I would tell them who I was eyeballing," Yarrow sat back up, now not sure to think of the devilish grin on Natsu's face. "But Natsu," She was going to try to tell him to keep it secret again, but like last time, he interrupted her.

"Don't you mean 'Master Natsu'?" He interjected, looking her in the eye with a gleam of curiosity. Yarrow blankly looked at him, not sure of what to think of this twist in his personality. She couldn't tell if he was teasing or serious. She recalled a catchphrase that Elfman uses, 'He is a man.' But before she resulted to violence, Natsu pointed at her neck.

Yarrows hand touched her neck, the collar was still there. After her twirling of the leash in the front of the building, Erza confiscated the leash, but left all other parts of the outfit. She must have forgotten to take it off when she changed. No wonder she was getting odd looks from the cashier at the store.

Yarrow clambered for the buckle under her hair to take it off.

"Wait," Natsu said. He looked away from her to hide his face, "I kind of like it."

Yarrow raised her eyebrow and blushed deeply at the confession from the pink-haired Dragon Slayer. The phrase from Elfman popped up into her head again. This time she wasn't as enraged as a moment ago. She lowered her hands, leaving the collar in its place.

Natsu peeked at her from the corner of his eye. He saw that she left the collar on and grinned in silent victory.

Yarrow smiled, "Well, Master Natsu, have you figured out why you can't sleep?"

Natsu inhaled sharply. "No, but I think I have an idea."

Yarrow waited for elaboration on his proclamation. The elaboration didn't come for a long while. Instead, they say in silence. All of the food had been consumed and Yarrow was still waiting for elaboration, so that left looking up at the stars.

"You smell different when you fight," Natsu said. Yarrow scoffed in surprise.

"Well, I don't like the smell of bones either, and my magic focuses around them," Yarrow smirked, not being offended by the abrupt statement. She knew that her bones, especially when she makes them into a dust, smell very bad.

Natsu breathed in deeply in a sigh. "That's not what I meant, you smell different. It doesn't smell like bones or anything. It is just your smell when you are using your magic, not the smell of your magic."

A sudden pang of panic surged through Yarrow, she was desperate to get off of the topic, "I think you need to let off some steam, seeing as you barely let lose in the mission today. Wanna go burn things?"

Natsu's previous confused expression was quickly replaced by a childish, boy-like grin. Yarrow would never admit out loud that that smile made her heart skip a little. He exclaimed his excitement and dragged her out of town. At least he was thinking about the safety of the town before he did the Fire Dragon's Roar.

When they got to an open field near the harbor of the city, Natsu lit his entire body on fire, almost too close to Yarrow. She jumped at his sudden release of magic next to her.

After a while of him just standing there on fire, he turned to look at Yarrow. "Can you do that thing that Shark does with projectile bones? I saw him do it when you two defeated your monsters," He asked. He had a glimmer in his eye that made him look gentle, despite his cloak of fire raging around him, "I want target practice."

"Sorry. I can't do that, but how about some sparring?" Yarrow smiled. She liked the look in his eyes. It was what she always admired about him, even when she was little. He knew when to be gentle.

To show her point, she grew out her bone scales on her arms and hands. She liked her comfortable clothes that she was wearing, so she didn't want to grow any spikes that would tear them.

Natsu extinguished all of the flames on him except his arms, following her lead. His signature grin was on his face, "I promise I won't do any funny business with your bones."

Yarrow quickly found that this training was a lot different than her training with Shark. Without a warning, Natsu seemed to disappear in front of her and reappear behind her, ready to kick her in the side of the head. She quickly grew a protective bone on the side of her head and neck to soften the blow. She took the kick head on and his leg stayed suspended there. Yarrow didn't move an inch from the impact. He looked at her surprised.

"I promised not to play with your bones, I said nothing about my own," Yarrow laughed and grabbed at his ankle. He pulled his leg back and jumped away. The bone that Yarrow grew turned to dust and fell to the ground.

"How can you grow bones that fast?" Natsu muttered. He had a look in his eyes that said that he wasn't going to be finished until he landed a good hit on her.

Yarrow replied with a smirk to tell him that there was seven years that she spent to use her magic in battle.

They continued their sparring for a while until Natsu got impatient for not being able to land a good hit on her. He ended their fight with a Fire Dragon Roar.

Yarrow wasn't expecting the Roar to be as powerful as it was. Sure, she grew up with watching him and the others destroy things, but she never experienced the Roar of a Dragon Slayer. She stumbled back after taking the powerful attack straight on, only a thin layer of bone deflecting a fraction of the force. She had her arms crossed across her face as Natsu ran through the fire and hit her.

Yarrow fell to the ground with a plop. She looked up at Natsu. He had a triumphant expression on his face because he knew that he won.

"So that is what it's like to be on the receiving end of a Roar," Yarrow said. Her bone was instantly incinerated when the roar hit her, that had never happened before in a single attack.

Natsu suddenly looked nervous, thinking that he had crossed a line in their fight "I thought that you would be able to handle it."

"Are you out of magic?" Yarrow smiled at him, to assure him that there was nothing to be concerned about with her. Natsu plopped down next to her with a smile.

"No, but pretty close," he said meeting her eyes in a gaze, "Are you?"

"Closer than what I'd like, but I'll survive. Normally Shark and I train until we are both unable to move," Yarrow laughed nervously.

There was a silence between them, "You and Shark are a good team, it almost looks like you two could be related when you're fighting, but when you're not you two look completely different."

"It's because he is as white as a ghost and I am awesome," Yarrow cackled while she flipped her hair. She knew that they didn't look anything alike, but whenever they are fighting, it is hard to distinguish the two bone manipulators.

Natsu looked away and muttered in agreement.

"Shark's mom took me in when I came to Magnolia," Yarrow had a feeling that she needed to explain her relationship with the other half of the Horned Devil team to the fire mage, "Kohaku, made sure that both of us were taken care of. When she left the city to become a traveling trader, Shark and I moved in together just so we could help each other."

Natsu nodded in acknowledgement. She felt a lot better letting him know that they were more like siblings than anything else.

Yarrow fell back into the grass. The fire and bone particles had long since blown out of the little area. Natsu soon followed her onto the grass. They both lay there staring at the sky.

"Natsu?" Natsu cleared his throat, earning a sigh and an eye-roll from Yarrow, "Master Natsu?"

Natsu smiled and chuckled in victory, "umhumm."

"Don't tell anyone that I told you that the girls played truth or dare, Erza might kill me," Yarrow nervously laughed. She knew Erza would kill her, there was no might. She was kind of regretting telling Natsu about the game, unsure that he would keep his mouth shut.

Natsu was quiet for a while. Yarrow thought that he fell asleep when he finally responded, "On one condition."

Yarrow sighed and looked curiously over at his pink-haired form lying next to her in the grass. "And what's that?"

"You and I play truth or dare," Natsu said it simply. Yarrow was sure that the game that she played with the girls was a lot more rowdy than anything that this fire-mage was able to conjure. She agreed by nodding her head.

"Well then, truth or dare?" Natsu was devilishly smirking. She already told him that she never says truth.

"Dare," Yarrow sighed, wondering what the childish mage was going to dare her to do.

Natsu let a short little bark-like mischievous laugh out, after a few moments of silence of him thinking, "I dare you to wear that collar the rest of the time we are here, and address only me as Master."

"What about Master Makarov?" Yarrow sighed. She was secretly enjoying the collar and addressing him as master. She knew that her emotions for him were strengthening, and the collar would just escalate them. She was grateful that they weren't looking at each other because her face darkened with another blush.

Natsu contemplated for a moment, "I guess you can call him master too, but don't go out of your way to do it, now."

"Now you, Master Natsu, truth or dare?" Yarrow asked as the realization that she would be wearing the uncomfortable collar for the rest of the trip.

Natsu "hmmed" as he thought of an answer, "Dare."

Yarrow shivered from the cold night. "I dare you to go get my blanket and bring it to me." Yarrow didn't want to scare him off by a bold dare right off the bat, and she was cold.

Natsu laughed, "You wasted a good dare on that? You could have just asked."

"A dare is a dare, and I am cold, the metal and leather on this collar is very cold," Yarrow tried to make him feel bad for making her keep it on the entire time. She knew it probably wouldn't work with Natsu, but it was worth a try. She sat up and waited for her blanket.

He sighed and laughed. He ran over to where they entered the little area and brought her hotel-issued blanket to her, it was a little singed from being near the fire mage.

"Truth or dare?" He asked as he sat down. Yarrow wrapped the blanket around her tightly to conceal the shiver.

Yarrow sighed, he should know now that she won't be saying truth anytime soon, "Dare."

"Perfect," Natsu devilishly looked over at her. "I dare you to say 'truth' next time around."

"You play dirty!" Yarrow exclaimed and pushed him over.

"A dare is a dare," He said mimicking her earlier statement, "So I am taking that as an agreement?" Natsu sat back up with his signature grin, knowing that she wouldn't back down.

"Humph. A dare is a dare," Yarrow couldn't believe that all of the girls last night didn't think of that one. It was probably because it is cheating.

"I choose dare again," not letting her ask him.

"Kiss Gray tomorrow in front of the whole guild," Yarrow said without hesitation. She wanted to let him know that she frowned upon his cheating.

Natsu looked at her in shock. "You're serious?"

"Dead serious. You don't get to break the rules without consequence," Yarrow said with devilish grin that mimicked his from when he broke the rules with her dare. He stared at her in shock. "A dare is a dare," she echoed the newly forming motto between the two.

"Fine," Natsu said. He was still glaring at her, "Truth or dare?"

"Do you really need to ask that? You know what I am forced to say," Yarrow rolled her eyes at the elemental mage.

"I want to hear you say it," Natsu was still looking at her with a cocky grin on his face.

Yarrow huffed, "Fine, Master Natsu, I am forced to choose truth."

Natsu laughed in triumph. "Hum, I don't know what to ask you, give me a second."

Yarrow jumped to stand on her feet, surprised by the fire mage, "Then you just made me say truth to torture me?"

"You dared me to kiss Gray because you wanted to torture me," Natsu countered, standing up to meet Yarrows eyes, his playful smile was still on his face.

"That's because you broke the rules!" Yarrow exclaimed. She never thought Natsu, of all people, would cook up such a plan to torment her.

"What is it that that you didn't want to tell the girls? Who you are eyeballing? Something like that?" Natsu pondered out loud. "What does that even mean? Is that some sort of girl code?"

"Natsu!" Yarrow exclaimed, she couldn't believe how evil he was being to her. She especially didn't want to tell him that she was eyeballing him. She didn't even know if he liked her.

"You just broke the rules," Natsu cackled and put a hand behind his head. "You forgot to address me as 'Master'."

Yarrow scowled at him. Something about the glare made him put his hands up as to declare that he was not going to ask that, and to calm the bone mage. "I'll be nice," Natsu promised, attempting to calm the female. He just realized how good he was at making women mad at him.

Yarrow took a deep breath; Natsu took this as an agreement to his terms. He'll save that other question he was going to ask her for later, the one about the eyeballing. "Do you know why you smell different when you use your magic?"

It was as if that question caused Yarrow physical pain. She sharply inhaled and her eyes got the look of sudden panic. She turned around, "I'm going to buy some milk." She walked back in the direction that they came. Her walking away from him surprised him. It took him a moment to register that she was walking away. He started to walk after her and reached out his hand. She paused one moment at the edge of the area where they were. "And yes, I do know why I smell different."

Yarrow left before Natsu could continue follow her and demand to know why she smells different.

* * *

Well, that's all for now. Squee maybe? Because of this, I was this close to naiming the entire story "Truth or Dare." And the following chapters, but whatever. I like Bones better anyway.


	9. Not Over Yet

I know that this isnt getting all cute yet, but I told you that it takes a while.  
Gosh, I want to tell you all some more disclaimers, but they would ruin the surprise...

Well, I don't own Fairy Tail.

Enjoy

* * *

**PART NINE: NOT OVER YET**

The next morning all of the girls woke up early to the sound of pounding on the door. Gray yelled at them to all come down to the lobby within the hour because Master Makarov needed to tell everyone something important.

Yarrow and all of the girls silently muttered curses or confessions of love to Gray. The only one that confessed her love was Lluvia who was still asleep. Yarrow rolled out of her bed and went right to the refrigerator. The three pints of milk she went and bought after her abrupt departure with Natsu last night were all there. She grabbed one and started drinking it right from the bottle.

"Didn't your mom ever tell you to not drink milk out of the carton?" Cana asked. She had a lot to drink last night, so she must have been hung over and obviously not in a good mood. Yarrow was in just as sour of a mood as the card mage due to her lack of sleep and the unavoidable question that she knew Natsu was going to ask her today. She didn't want to tell anyone anything else about her magic.

"You're one to talk; didn't dear papa ever tell you not to drink alcohol in your underwear?" Yarrow sneered as she continued to drink out of the carton. She earned herself a death glare from Cana. Yarrow knew full well that Gildartz was her dad, but didn't know till recently. Lucy was in the shower so she didn't have to watch her tongue around the card mage.

Erza walked over to the two of them, "Quit it, we are all tired." The threat was the sleepiest threats ever delieverd by the knight mage.

After a moment to compose herself, Yarrow responded to her nakama, "Sorry, I bought three cartons, if you want some, you're more than welcome to the other two cartons. Hurry up about it though, I drink a lot of milk," Yarrow muttered a pseudo-apology to Cana who also muttered an apology.

The girls all decided that they would go down to the lobby together. Some of the girls were more awake than others, Wendy, Lucy and Levi being the only ones who were actually awake. The rest of the girls barely slipped on clothes that weren't inside out or put on crooked and drowsily walked down to the lobby. Yarrow had a loose black shirt on with her normal dark jeans and sandals.

Due to the dare from her eyecandy the previous night, she left the black and silver collar around her neck. Nobody had noticed it yet.

She matched all of the other sleepy women with messy hair and baggy eyes walking into the lobby. Yarrow had the second of the three cartons of milk in her hand as she walked into the lobby. All of the men were there too, most all of them were just as sleepy as the women. She spotted an open spot of the couch between Shark and Natsu in the lobby and made a bee-line to it. She almost fell back asleep the moment she sat down.

"Damn, Yarrow, I knew you were an insomniac anywhere other than home, but this is ridiculous!" Shark exclaimed as she almost sat on him, he scooted closer to the arm of the couch and pushed his sister off of him, forcing her to be almost completely on Natsu's lap. Yarrow wiggled to be wedged between the two, no longer sitting on the fire-mages lap. She was too tired to care if she or the other two were comfortable.

"Shut up or I will make you my pillow." Yarrow demanded as she let her head hang over the back of the couch. Natsu's arm was up against hers on the cramped couch, so Yarrow felt when Natsu laughed.

"Yarrow! You are going to spill that everywhere!" Shark yelled as the milk carton almost slipped out of her tired hands. The sudden yell woke her up for a moment and she squeezed both of her hands around the carton. She tried to brush it over as she took another drink.

"Shut up Shark, you are too loud," Cana said pressing her hands to her temples. She and everyone else settled into the lobby. Not everyone had a spot on the comfy couches or chairs. Cana had to sit on the coffee table in the middle of the sunken lobby.

Natsu stirred next to Yarrow. She suddenly felt more awake than before, now feeling the additional heat coming from the fire-mage. She looked in his direction.

Natsu's attempt to catch Yarrows attention was a success. He held her eyes in a gaze for a moment. His body heat cooled down, then he sighed and muttered softly, "A dare is a dare."

He stood up, "Gray, ice for brains!" Natsu yelled. Yarrow found herself fully awake and attentive to the scene that would play out in front of her. If he was going to do what she thought he was going to do, this would be worth waking up for. Natsu jumped on the table next to Cana.

Gray responding to his rivals insult got in his face, "What Flame-Breath?"

Natsu grabbed Gray's necklace, since he wasn't wearing a shirt already and pulled him closer to his face. It was quick and shocking as Natsu placed a kiss on his enemy's lips.

The entire lobby went silent and the two continued to fight. Some of the mages shook their head, thinking that they were imagining things in their sleepy state. Gray continued to insult Natsu, almost like he didn't register the action of the Fire Dragon Slayer. Lluvia almost murdered Natsu with her glare alone.

Yarrow turned to the side to stop her small nosebleed. She hid it by pretending that she was cuddling up into the couch to sleep more, but her giggling and shaking was hard to disguise as sleepiness.

Cana stood up very quickly and threw Natsu across the room, "You all are too damn loud!"

"Now that everyone is gathered, I have some important information pertaining to the battle yesterday," Master Makarov walks into the lobby from the hallway that leads to the rooms. He had his own room so he could correlate the town with the guild members. It was also because he was older than all of the other guys and didn't want to ruin their fun.

Everyone piped down. Yarrow cleaned the blood off of her face from the nosebleed. All attention was on the Guild Master. Natsu made his way back to his spot next to her.

"Aberts, the monsters that we fought yesterday were defeated. However, the town leaders forgot to mention that there was more to the monster. The same thing that happened while we were fighting it happened before it engaged us. The monster split into different parts," Makarov looked down. "The mission is not complete. The town leaders were happy to see two of the heads, but requested that we eradicate the monster for good. They said that when the complete monster is destroyed, it will take its original form."

The sleepy guild members were all silent. "They understand that we are all very tired, so they are willing to wait a day for us to come up with a plan and restore our magic. I will think of a plan, in the meantime, you all get rest and enjoy yourselves. Cana, stay away from alcohol. Everybody else, if you all show up wearing weird clothing again, you will be made to change. We were okay last time since we had all of our forces, but tomorrow we will be splitting up into two parties to search and eradicate."

There were a few silent questions. Whenever Makarov said a speech like that, there was little to no objection or questions. He makes sure to get all of the points across as quick as possible.

"Gajeel, Natsu, Wendy, Gray, Lucy, Erza, Yarrow, Shark can I have a word?" Makarov stated more than asked as the sleepy group was stirring to go back to their beds.

* * *

Something big is happening next chapter, that is why it is so short.


	10. Confession

This one is longer than the last one.

I dont own Fairy Tail, however I wreak havoc with the characters.

* * *

**PART TEN: CONFESSION**

Gajeel, Natsu, Gray, Wendy, Lucy, Erza, Shark and Yarrow all stayed where they were seated while the rest of the guild members were slowly making their way out of the Lobby. Happy, Carla and Pantherlilly all hung around their Dragon Slayers.

Some of the members, like Cana, were falling asleep every few steps, making the time that it took to evacuate the lobby longer than necessary.

Yarrow took another slow drink from her milk carton, her previous sleepiness overtook her. She leaned back and relaxed right up against Natsu's arm. She was too tired to worry about blushing at the closeness of her and Natsu.

"Hey, give me some," Shark demanded, reaching for the carton. It was clear that Makarov was waiting for all of the other members to clear out before speaking to them.

"Go get your own!" Yarrow childishly pushed Shark away by shoving her hand on his face and pushing him.

"But you have some now and I want some!" Shark pleaded, taking on a childish tone. This childish fighting was nothing new to the two. Ever since Shark and Yarrow came to the guild, they were childishly fighting with each other. Knowing that it was because Shark's mom took in Yarrow when she came to the city made sense that the two fought all of the time.

This fight between Yarrow and Shark was a very tame fight compared to some of the other ones that they have had over milk when they are at home. It was mostly due to the fact that they were completely tired.

Yarrow continued to push Shark, "Yeah, so?"

"You two really like milk a lot. That's weird," Natsu commented from his seat on the other side of Yarrow. Shark was pushing Yarrow even closer to him on the couch.

"We grow bones, bones need calcium, milk has calcium," Yarrow said in between drinks. "Shark is just a baby about it."

"I'm being a baby, look who is greedy with their milk," Shark growled. "Maybe it's because you didn't have a mother to tell you about sharing."

Erza tensed, now realizing why Yarrow had snapped at Cana in the room earlier.

"Well maybe your dad would have taught you how to share, but you don't have one of those either," Yarrow said. She was smirking at Shark. Unlike her argument about parents this morning with Cana, this was playful banter between the sibling-like mages. The smile on Yarrow's face made Erza relax a little.

"Well at least my dad wasn't a childish freak," Shark gave up and crossed his arms, looking the opposite direction as Yarrow drank most of the milk in one gulp. He was clearly angry at his sister.

Yarrow glared at Shark, nobody in the room could tell if it was a playful glare or a serious glare. She finished the milk out of the carton. She was still glaring at Shark. She was contemplating how to react to his last comment. He had never insulted her father before. Her eyes lit on fire as she threw the carton of milk, now filled with hard bone right at Sharks head.

"Don't you dare insult my dad!" Yarrow watched the carton make a hollow thunk on Sharks head and fall to the floor. Shark pretended not to notice the violent gesture from his sister.

That moment, the last of the members of the guild trickled out of the lobby. Before the fight between the two bone manipulators could escalate, Makarov spoke, "Yarrow, pertaining to your father, would you care to enlighten the rest of the group?"

Yarrow's face fell and her breathing quickened. Her previous drowsy, angry and childish states were replaced by panic, "Not really, no."

Shark sighed loudly, still irritated with Yarrow, "Well, why not? You might as well, more people know now than ever before. They just came back, so why not tell them."

Yarrow wanted to go find the bone-filled milk carton and hit him with it again, but this time she would hit him much, much harder. She let that desire become an expression on her face as she glared at her sibling.

"You deserve the name, just say it and you'll see it," Shark tried to reason with his sister, his previous irritation and childish tone was gone. "I promise that it won't be as bad as you think."

Yarrow sighed. She always made it a point to try to listen to Sharks advice. She sighed again and quietly muttered, "Ostios."

"That is a weird name, there is nothing wrong with having a father with a weird name," Lucy said smiling. That was right; Lucy had a father that died before she came back from the island.

Yarrow muttered something under her breath, she was fiddling with her hands and staring at her hands. She barely opened her mouth so her mutter came out as a weird humming sound.

"What was that?" Erza asked. She was impressed on how the two stopped their fighting on their own, without any interference from her.

Yarrow took a shaky breath, "Ostios is a weird name because m-my dad, h-he-he is," Yarrow took another breath. She buried her chin into her chest. Shark put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. The comfort from her brother gave Yarrow a sudden burst of confidence and looked up and declared, "My dad is a dragon."

There was a silence in the room for a moment. Shark rubbed Yarrow on the shoulder. He had known about her dad for a long time, he was silently regretting insulting him all because of something as trivial as milk.

"That means that you are a Dragon Slayer?" Lucy broke the silence.

Yarrow's shyness about her dad and her upbringing struck her again and she sank down into the couch, "My dad disappeared the same day that the rest of your parents disappeared. I was really young, I only spent a few years with him. I don't think that I learned much from him, just basic bone manipulation. The rest I figured out myself. I don't deserve to be called a Dragon Slayer."

Makarov knew that this was crucial to the development of Fairy Tail as a guild. If they had any chance of gaining their previous title of the strongest guild, they would need to strengthen their bonds with one another. Yarrow filling the other Dragon Slayers of the origin of her magic would make their bond even stronger.

Natsu stood up very fast. He stood right in front of Yarrow. She refused to raise her head to look at him or any of the other members that were in the lobby with her.

"Fishboy, if you ever, and I mean ever say that Yarrow's father is a freak again, I will burn you," Natsu said threateningly. Yarrow raised her gaze a little to see that Natsu was looking right at Shark, with his hands trembling a little. Shark was clearly intimidated by the Fire Dragon Slayer. He nodded his head.

"I'm not the only female Dragon Slayer!" Wendy stated. She smiled.

Gajeel grunted, "Just because you were young doesn't mean that you don't deserve to be a Dragon Slayer."

Natsu had calmed down after some time and sat back down on the other side of Yarrow. She looked at the other Dragon Slayers and their team.

"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Erza asked lightly. That was the first time that she asked something so nicely.

"I didn't want my weakness to soil the name of the Fairy Tail Dragon Slayers. Like I said, I didn't really learn that much from my dad about bones. I figured out most of the stuff I can do now on my own," Yarrow's eyes were glued on her knees once again.

"I already knew about your magic," Wendy chirped, "Even then."

Yarrow looked up at Wendy with confusion stitched on her face. Shark looked up at the Sky Dragon Slayer, "What?"

"Whenever you healed a bone in the guild, you gave off the smell of a Dragon Slayer," Wendy was clearly trying to comfort Yarrow. "It might have been because the Sky Dragon magic and the Bone Dragon magic both deal with healing."

Natsu jumped up, "That's what it is! Yarrow, make a bone or something!"

Yarrow looked at her fellow Dragon Slayers, they were accepting her. Everyone was accepting her. She made a note that she would cry later for them being so tolerant of her. She closed her eyes to hold the tears back. She held out her hand and made a bone in the shape of the Fairy Tail guild emblem.

"That's it! Now that Wendy said it, I recognize that smell, it is the smell of a Dragon Slayer!" Natsu exclaimed.

The non-Dragon Slayers in the room all applauded. "Watch out, Fairy Tail has Four powerful Dragon Slayers!"

Shark muttered, "Damn Dragon Slayers and their noses."

"Did you know?" Erza asked.

Shark chuckled, "It was about the same time that you guys disappeared, I stumbled into the area where she was practicing the Dragon Roar. It's a funny story actually, I'll tell you it sometime."

"Just to make this clear, Ostios is the Bone Dragon?" Gray asked. "How does your magic an your Roar work? Flame-brain has lots of fire to eat, Wendy has the entire sky, and Gajeel has random iron objects."

"I eat bones," Yarrow said simply. That was embarrassing. Not only socially, but because most people think of bones being gnawed, not eaten. She reddened at the abrupt embarrassing statement, "Teeth mostly, but I can't do a Roar very well."

"That's why she and Shark are such a good team!" Lucy exclaimed. "Shark can re-grow bone and Yarrow can manipulate it. If Shark gets a bone injury, Yarrow will help heal it and if Yarrow is in trouble, Shark can send projectile bones to Yarrow to eat. It is kind of like how I try to make fire whenever Natsu is in a pinch."

After a few minutes of chitchat, Yarrow was still struggling to hold back the tears of how accepting the other Dragon Slayers were of her newly revealed status.

"Yarrow," Makarov demanded the attention from everyone in the room. He was glad that his plan had worked. He knew that the other members of the guild would accept her. After all this was Fairy Tail, "How is your nose?"

"It's okay I guess," Yarrow sniffling to hold back her tears. She never cried in front of people, that wouldn't change anytime soon.

"She is just being modest. It's amazing! I can't even burp in the cabin without her yelling at me for smelling the whole house! She then opens all of the windows, even if it is in the middle of winter to air out the cabin," Shark laughed. "Not to mention that she only stayed with Fairy Tail after you disappeared because she could smell the other Dragon Slayers."

"You could smell us on the island?" Wendy squeaked, sniffing with her own nose to test if she could smell the others distinctively.

"I am sure that you all could do the same thing," Yarrow smiled. "You all have very distinctive smells."

"Well that's good, we will need your nose," Makarov said. "Tomorrow, you and everyone else in the guild will go and sniff out the other Aberts. For now, relax and regain all of your magic."

* * *

Tis all for now. Fluff is around the corner.

Yeah, I know that I am being a cliche fanfic writer, with the whole Dragon Slayer stuff and all, but eh. This is my story and I had a proper inspiration for it. I got the idea for Yarrow because i had a particularly creepy, reccuring dream where I go around robbing graves so I could eat their teeth. I wont go that much into the dream, because it is creepy. There are scythes, monsters, transformers, rival colleges, bears, hunters, wolves that enforce supernatural laws. It is all very wierd. I might actually write a story that is something like it eventually.

Till next time


	11. Calm Before the Storm

Sorry that it has been a while. Finals are killing me.

I dont own Fairy Tail, but i enjoy messing with the characters :)

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**PART ELEVEN: CALM BEFORE THE STORM**

After a trip to the rooms and a quick, mostly unsuccessful nap, Yarrow made her way to the family hot spring. The entire guild that was there was soaking in different pools donning their swimsuits so they could mingle with everyone in the guild.

Yarrow walked in and found out there was another area of the hot springs. It was for VIPs that rented private pools that could only be accessed by tunnels. Yarrow heard about these cave springs from the receptionist as she walked by her. She would have to check those out later when she wanted to escape from the rest of the group.

"Hey Dragon Slayer!" She was greeted by Natsu yelling at her and running towards her. Yarrow was really looking for those caves so she could escape. She just exposed her secret that she is the Bone Dragon Slayer and Natsu was running around yelling it for everyone to hear. "We were waiting for you to come down, we are all over in this one!"

Natsu dragged her to a medium sized hot spring pool where the rest of 'Team Dragon Slayer' was with the addition of Shark, Lisanna, Levi and Lluvia. The pool had a lot of edge space to sit on where most of the people were located hanging their feet in the pool. There was a large rock wall that dominated about a third of the area around the pool.

Lluvia was making sure that she was between Natsu and her Gray at all times, still convinced that Natsu was going to try to steal the ice mages heart from her from his demonstration from earlier.

"Hey there!" Gajeel was cheerful. Having Levi near him was doing wonders to his normally antisocial and shady mood.

"What's going on?" Yarrow greeted them all, waving her hand at them all.

Yarrow sighed as she stepped into the deep spring. No wonder everyone except Natsu and herself were sitting on the side of the spring. This spring was by far the hottest one that the spring had.

She stood there for a moment to acclimate to the temperature, then she slid into a deeper part of the spring. Yarrow sank into the water until her nose was just above the water. She floated there as all of the other members greeted and continued on with their conversations. Yarrow closed her eyes.

"What are you doing?" Lucy asked after a few minutes. She noticed that Yarrow hadn't replied since her initial greeting. She looked at the barely-floating Bone Dragon Slayer and she added, "Did she fall asleep? How is that possible? It is far too hot in this spring!"

Everyone looked at the tan mage. Shark mentioned something about Yarrow needing the sleep. Natsu got a devilish idea and slowly waded over to Yarrow, so the waves his movements made wouldn't wake her.

He slowly raised his hand above her head. There was some vocalized opposition from some of the other mages that happened to be paying attention to him. He ignored all of their silent protests and pushed her head down just enough for the tip of her nose to go underwater.

She jumped up and inhaled deeply, believing that she was suffocating. She saw Natsu cackling like a hyena and assumed correctly that it was him that tried to assassinate her in her sleep.

Right before she was about to yell at him, Natsu motioned to his neck and looked at her as if to say 'Don't forget to call me Master when you yell at me.'

"Are you _trying_ to kill me, Master Natsu?" Yarrow growled as she sharply exhaled though her nose to try to get the water out. She sank back into the water, making sure to keep her entire head out of the water. She made sure that she fixated a dangerous glare on the rose haired mage.

Levi caught what Yarrow said to Natsu. The script mage furrowed her brow for a moment, "Why are you still calling him Master? That ended yesterday."

Yarrow just looked innocently at Levi, pretending that she didn't do anything wrong. The bluenette looked at Yarrow, to the laughing Natsu, to Yarrow and then her eyes caught something around Yarrow's neck. Her eyes lit up and a smile broke on her face.

"OH!" Levi exclaimed at the realization. Yarrow groaned. That little bluenette was far too smart, but it was only a matter of time before someone noticed. Levi quickly whispered something in Erza's ear. Erza did the same motion with her eyes as Levi had moments before. Her eyes widened and a devilish smirk shot onto her face, Erza whispered to Lucy as Levi tenderly walked through the hot water to where Lluvia was seated next to Gray.

Yarrow groaned again, She thought that it would be fair to warn him about the scene that would be displayed soon, "Master Natsu, brace yourself."

Almost in unison Lucy and Lluvia squeaked in a high-pitched voice. Lluvia grabbed Gray and squeezed him in victory, knowing that no other girl was looking at him. Lucy clasped her hands together and looked at Yarrow. Levi made her way to Wendy, told her and then Wendy ran off, probably to tell everyone else. Lucy scooted over to Lisanna and whispered in her ear.

Natsu ceased his cackling as he finally noticed all of the women acting weird. He looked at Yarrow, slightly remembering her warning. When he was about to ask Yarrow what was going on, Shark beat him to it.

"What is happening?" Shark asked aloud. He saw the beginnings of the female secret social gossip tree unfolding before his eyes. All of the other guys in the vicinity were thinking the same thing. Levi took a seat on the edge of the spring next to Gajeel.

Gajeel looked at the petite bluenette with confusion written on his face. The Iron Dragon Slayer knew that Levi couldn't resist telling him what was really going on. She leaned over and whispered in his ear the same thing she told the women. Gajeel smirked and closed his eyes. He shook his head slightly as the realization hit him. He muttered something like, "About time." He said it so low that nobody heard him.

Yarrow, forgetting about her previous resolution to stay afloat, sank down to her eyes in the water. She was hoping that the heat would disguise the blush on her face. She could have handled the women knowing, but now one of the guys knew. Levi might as well shout it out right now. Yarrow floated over to the middle of the rock wall, so that the other members wouldn't follow her and harass her.

"Yarrow, why are they looking at you like that?" Natsu followed her to her retreat, sinking down to right above his jaw line so he could talk. He and Yarrow were the only two submerged in the hot water.

"Glerberb blurp pstburb glerbert," Yarrow muttered with a scowl under the water. Natsu reached over and pulled her head out of the water by gently lifting her chin with his hand. Yarrows heart fluttered a little at the tender gesture.

"Come again?" He smirked, moving his hand to make her face him. Her eyes never met his. The pink shade that her skin was turning due to the scalding water wouldn't be able to cover up the deep blush that would appear on Yarrow's face if her eyes were to meet his.

"Remember that question that you were going to ask me?" Yarrow tried to keep her voice low to avoid the other guild members from overhearing, "The one that I didn't want the other girls to know."

Natsu nodded with a smirk, liking that he was incorporated into the whispering that was happening in the spring. This time, it was only two people in a conversation, not some weird social gossip tree that the women concocted.

"They just found out who it is," Yarrow muttered, she sank to her ears into the spring again. She was still glaring at the bluenette and the redhead on the other side of the spring.

"Don't give me that look, Yarrow," Levi said laughing at the squirming light haired bone mage. Yarrow knew that she was turning an unnatural shade of pink that couldn't be blamed on the temperature of the water.

She had a moment of panic as Natsu was about to ask her more. She panicked more when she saw that the pink haired mage was going to ask for elaboration. Then, she fled. She quickly stood up and evacuated the spring and near-ran out of the spring area.

She thought that she was safe in the hallway. She was leaned up against the wall a little ways down from the springs. For some reason she felt like she needed to catch her breath and calm the erratic beating of her heart.

"Mind telling me what's going on? And why everyone is looking at me weird now too?" A voice came from behind her. Natsu was there looking very boyish and confused with his hand running through his wet hair. Her heart fluttered again. He was nice to look at. He was nice to be close to. He was nice to be alone in the hallway with. The last thought made Yarrows breath catch in her throat.

Yarrow stared at him for a moment, unsure if she was dreaming or not.

"You are the one that I was eyeballing," Yarrow said looking away from him. She already revealed her biggest secret, so why not unveil some more while she is at it. Also, she was not convinced that he was even standing in front of her. The water was beading on his chest and incredibly muscular abs, he looked like something her subconscious would construct, he was just too perfect.

Natsu was quiet for a moment, "And what exactly does eyeballing me mean? Is that just a weird way to say looking at?"

Yarrow looked at him in surprise. She thought that the rhetorical questions that he asked last night were just to make her squirm. How he didn't figure it out about the other women kissing their 'eyeballing' guys the other day baffled her. Her face had a slight pink tinge from the heat of embarrassment.

Erza came out of the spa area, "You are mistaken if you think that I am going to let you two be alone before I can decide what I want to do with this information."

Yarrow groaned again. She wasn't going to confess anything any further with the watchful eyes of Erza there. Yarrow was pretty sure that even if she tried, Erza would stop her. Erza was going to make the whole thing between the bone mage and her eyecandy into an intricate hazing process for Yarrow.

Erza was the one that spoke, "Why don't we go back, we have a long day tomorrow and we should relax a little today."

Both the Bone and the Fire Dragon Slayers knew that Erzas suggestion was more of a strong hint on what they will be doing. Yarrow never really remembered ever being this terrified of Erza.

They made their way back to the pool that they just left. Now everyone in the guild was gathered around it with only their feet hanging in the hot water. Erza took a seat on the edge and put her feet in. Yarrow had a feeling that she would have to use the scalding water of the pool to hide the fact that she is blushing.

Yarrow knew that there was more embarrassment to be had because Erza came to retrieve them and everyone congregated to one pool. Yarrow noticed that the temperature in the pool seemed to increase since their last time there, but that might be because all of her blood was at the surface of her skin. Yarrow walked through the water to where the rock wall that she retreated to earlier.

When Natsu went to get in the pool, Shark smacked him upside the head, "Natsu, if you fuck it up, you'll have to answer to me." Shark gave a very toothy sneer to Natsu. Yarrow saw the encounter between her brother and her eyecandy and sank into the water. The poor boy didn't even know what was going on!

Before any fight could erupt between the two boys, Erza made sure that they both knew that she was watching them.

To Yarrows surprise, the rest of the time in the springs there was no interrogation or evil plans being unveiled. There were many funny looks and snickering from all of the people that knew about Yarrow liking Natsu, so basically all of Fairy Tail, except Natsu. There was an abrupt chuckle from almost everyone whenever Yarrow referred to Natsu as 'Master.'

A few at a time, everyone went to the rooms to sleep for the following day. Natsu, Yarrow, Lisanna, Shark and Erza were the last ones in the pool. The four made their way back to the rooms together. Shark pestered everyone on the way to the room, saying that Erza better get her beauty sleep, Yarrow needed more calcium and Natsu needed to stop breathing fire in his sleep. He didn't need to verbally harass the petit animal take-over mage. All Shark had to do was look at her and she her face would erupt in a deep shade of pink in a blush.

Before there was any fight, Erza stepped in. She made sure that Yarrow and Shark didn't fight right outside of the rooms and she also made sure that Shark and Natsu wouldn't fight once inside their room.

That woman was scary sometimes.

* * *

A little short, but that's okay :)

Till next time,

Amber


	12. Storm

I am sorry that this is slow, but it will pick up here soon. The reason why I haven't addressed some of the questions is that they will be answered in the story later on. This story is LONG! I already have up to chapter 38 written and am constantly trying to edit it, but I fear that I am getting behind due to my schoolwork. I am also working on another fanfiction (That I have the first part already posted to), it hasn't developed that much, but whatever.

Also, Shark and Yarrow are not genetically related. Shark never met Ostios. I'm sorry that I didn't make that part clear when I wrote it.

Thank you for the reviews and follows, they make me very giddy and happy whenever I get one :)

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**PART TWELVE: STORM**

The night was long and cold. Yarrow felt her bones swell in the cold. There was going to be a storm.

Yarrow had to pretend to be asleep for two hours before Erza and Lisanna fell asleep. Yarrow had a feeling that Erza knew that she didn't stay in the room all night. She might have even known everything that she did when she wasn't in the room, but that didn't stop Yarrow from leaving.

Yarrow went to the convenient store and bought more milk. The clerk commented on her collar and how she only came late at night. Yarrow made small talk with the man. She had a feeling that he was the only one that would work the late shift and she was what he looked forward to that late since she was such an uncommon commodity.

Yarrow went to the back patio of the spa with two sandwiches and a gallon of milk.

Natsu never showed up.

Yarrow sighed as the sun started to rise after staying on the patio all night. Most of the guild would be meeting soon to finish the mission. Natsu probably was able to sleep now that he knew why there was something different about her smell. She accepted that she would spend the rest of her nights alone on the vacation.

Yarrow made her way to the lobby, she was still sleepy from the lack of sleep, but it only came in bouts when she didn't have to be doing anything. She sat on the couch where she sat the previous day when she revealed her secret.

"You were out early last night," Levi said leaning over the back of the couch to talk to Yarrow. Levi has a smirk that questioned Yarrow on what she was doing so late.

"I don't sleep well when I am away from home," Yarrow said. She still had a grip on a half-full gallon of milk. She just recently made another trip to the convenient store. She figured that she would need it.

On her way back, she caught a whiff of something in the air that reassured her previous speculation. There was defiantly going to be a storm today, "There is going to be a storm today, so you might want to bring a jacket."

"Stop avoiding my question," Levi leaned in closer to Yarrow and dug a jacket out of her bag. "Where did you go?"

"I don't go far, there is a convenient store that sells milk and is open 24/7. I go there and then I stay out until I feel I can sleep or I am meeting people," Yarrow referenced to the lobby that was slowly getting more people.

"So you haven't slept this entire time?" Lucy asked as she made her way into the lobby. She plopped down right next to Yarrow, "Other than when you are in boiling water in the springs yesterday."

"No I haven't slept much at all, Lucy. You should go get a jacket. There's going to be a cold rainstorm," Yarrow tried to change the subject to the weather once again.

Lucy ignored her, "What do you do before you sneak out of the room? You don't watch us all do you?" Lucy took a few steps back from her, suddenly feeling completely vulnerable.

"She leaves the building," Erza appeared on the couch on the other side of Yarrow. All of the other members were trickling in and some of them would jump in without hearing her answer to what she does when she doesn't sleep. "I haven't been able to see where she goes. I get bored after she goes to the same convenient store every night."

"You follow me?" Yarrow jumped up from the shock of Erza seemingly materializing out of nowhere next to her and the fact that she had a follower in the night.

"Only last night, I wanted to guard you," Erza said simply. Yarrow knew that if she pressed any further, Erza would say she was guarding me from potential threats, such as a stray Aberts clone or a rabid dark mage. She knew that she was guarding her from meeting with Natsu. Yarrow sighed and settled back into the couch.

Lluvia came into the lobby, she takes a look at the jackets of the women that were already congregate, "Is it going to be cold?"

Yarrow stands up, "There is going to be a rainstorm."

"But there isn't a cloud in the sky right now," Levi looked out the front window, now doubting the bone mage's forecast.

Most of the guys and a few remaining women came into the lobby in a flood. Yarrow stood up and stretched her back, making almost every vertebrae in her back pop. She crossed her fingers and popped her knuckles at the same time.

"There is going to be a storm," Shark said after hearing Yarrows bones crack. He turned on his heel and started walking back to the room to get a jacket. "Whenever Yarrow's bones start cracking like that, there is going to be a big storm. I suggest that all of you grab some rain gear."

"Are you serious?" Lisanna asked, slowly trailing Shark.

"Yeah, I have a feeling that the storm will last all day," Yarrow stretched her arms and her elbows and shoulders popped.

The remaining members of the guild returned from getting jackets and were all loitering around the lobby waiting for instruction. Makarov was still nowhere to be seen.

"So, Yarrow, you still haven't answered my question," Levi asked while she leaned over the back of the couch between where Yarrow and Natsu were sitting. He sat down soon after Shark declared that there was going to be a storm.

"There is nothing else to answer," Yarrow laughed. "I told you that I don't go far."

"But what do you do? I would get so bored!" Levi exclaimed. "I mean I could read, but I do enough of that during the normal hours of the day, it might get boring."

"I have a lot of things to think about," Yarrow sighed. She took a drink of her milk. The carton was still about half full. She handed the carton to Shark. He gladly took it.

"Now you share," Shark almost growled at Yarrow.

"It's because I care about your sweet face, Big Bro." Yarrow sarcastically grabbed Sharks cheek and pinched it to clarify the point.

"What could possibly take up that much time just thinking?" Levi whined, tired of being ignored in the conversation. She was kind of jealous of the Bone Dragon Slayer for not being able to sleep sometimes. There would be so much more work that she could accomplish if she didn't sleep, all of the books that she could read, the vast amount of knowledge that she would be able to memorize if she didn't need to sleep. She was curious to know what Yarrow spent her time on.

"Different things," Yarrow said. She grabbed at the milk again from Shark. Shark childishly turns away from her and starts chugging it. Yarrow sighs, knowing that she won't get that carton back.

"You really don't do much when you can't sleep, do you?" Levi asked, realizing what the evasive answers meant.

"Not really, no. I mostly sit around being angry at myself because I can't sleep. Sometimes I train, other times I just wonder around," Yarrow laughed. "More of the latter."

"What are you two talking about?" Natsu finally joined the conversation.

"Yarrow has a secret life," Erza said. She was moved from the couch and was now sitting on the table in front of the couch. Yarrow scoffed, why was everyone so interested? "She doesn't sleep a lot, and she wonders, like she said."

"This is really bothering you guys, isn't it?" Yarrow laughed.

Shark crumpled up the milk carton, "I have followed her a few times when we first became a team on out of town missions. She doesn't do anything interesting, you shouldn't be this curious."

"You followed me too?" Yarrow glared at her team mate. Shark gave her a mischievous grin. She had stalkers and she didn't know it!

"Remember how I found out you were a Dragon Slayer?" Shark smirked at his sister. Yarrows eyes widened. Of course she remembered that. She was practicing her Dragon Roar and he stumbled upon her training. The whole situation made sense now!

"Don't you get tired?" Lisanna was now enthralled by the fact that she didn't sleep away from Magnolia.

Yarrow sighed, she was bored with the conversation. She was more focused on her brother finding out her biggest secret because he was following her. She quickly turned to the gathering women and told them, "I get really tired. Most of the time, I sleep for days when I get back home."

Before any of the other curious mages could ask questions, Makarov came into the lobby. He explained that he wouldn't be joining the mission that day because of some official business with the town leaders.

"There will be two teams. There will be two Dragon Slayers on one team so they can sniff out the general direction of the Aberts monster. Since both Yarrow and Wendy are healers, they will be put on different teams. Natsu will go with Yarrow, Gajeel with Wendy." Makarov waited for the four Dragon Slayers to nod before he continued.

"The team with Natsu and Yarrow will be Shark, Erza, Gray, Lucy, Lluvia, and Cana." Happy flew around saying that he wasn't going to leave Natsu. Lluvia hugged Gray in victory. "Gajeel and Wendy will take Mirajane, Elfman, Evergreen, Lisanna, with Pantherlilly and Carla.

"Natsu, Yarrow, Gajeel, Wendy, make sure you get a good whiff of the Aberts heads that we brought back from the other day and follow that smell wherever it takes you." Makarov took a deep breath. There was a crack of lighting quickly followed by thunder to set the mood from the suddenly angry sky, "Good luck."

All of the guild members watched as the master retreated to the back of the room as they walked out the front door into the storm.

Levi wrapped her jacket around her more, "This storm came out of nowhere."

"This is not Lluvia's doing!" Lluvia protested hearing the observation from Levi.

Gajeel and Natsu agreed that their respective teams would search different sides of the main road that they took the other day.

The rain was coming down in sheets. It filled the air with so much moisture and so many smells that it was almost impossible to smell the Aberts. The other, non-dragon mages didn't understand why it was taking so long to find the Aberts monster with the two Dragon Slayer noses.

Erza took incentive, like she always does, and leads the search group further into the northern area of the Aberts territory. Erza insists that the two Dragon Slayers stay at the front of the group and attempt to smell out the monster.

Yarrow was two paces behind Erza and off to the right side, walking with Shark. Shark nor Gray would be taking their clothes off in the cold rain. Natsu was a few paces to the other side of Yarrow. He was avoiding the wrath of the knight mage.

Shark looked at Yarrow's neck and then to Natsu, revisiting the new information that Wendy told him the previous day. He didn't really like that Yarrow was paying attention to this guy. He was used to being in a guild that had only older men and a few guys that Yarrow made clear that she was not interested in. He was torn over protectiveness over his sister and the love for all of his nakama.

Natsu kept on looking over at Yarrow, he noticed a few times that Shark was glaring at him whenever he did, so he tried to make his glances a little more subtle. Yarrow would return the gesture, knowing that her brother wouldn't notice her glances as much as he noticed the fire mages looks.

Shark glared Natsu's glances away as he tried to glance at his sister. This weird game continued between the three for another few yards, "I wonder where you disappear off to at night, Natsu." He said it loud enough so Erza could hear him, knowing that the new information would be of interest to the knight mage. He knew that if he stuck around next to Yarrow and Natsu that he would get hit, so he retreated to walk next to Lucy.

Erza looked over her shoulder with an evil glare at the two Dragon Slayers. Yarrow scooted closer to Natsu in their formation. She would use him as a shield if it came to violence with the requip mage. After a few moments of the glare, Erza returned her attention to the path.

"Shark and Gajeel kept me inside last night," Natsu whispered to Yarrow. "Gajeel put bars on the windows and Shark slept in front of the door."

"Shark does that from time to time. I wouldn't take it personally," Yarrow said, not really interested in the adventures in the boys sleeping room.

"I would have come out to see you," Natsu whispered even more quiet than his previous statement.

Yarrow's interest was strung and she picked up on the idea that Natsu wanted to keep the conversation as private as possible with the watchful eyes of Erza nearby, "I am sure you can make it up to me somehow."

Natsu laughed, he made fire in the form of a sentence: _See you tonight?_

He kept the flames a little dull to avoid grabbing the attention of the people walking behind them. It was difficult for him to keep the fire lit in the heavy rain. While he struggled to make his sentence stay visible, he drowned out the sound by laughing, "I am sure that I will save you sometime today."

"I don't know, Master Natsu. I don't need to be saved that much," Yarrow was intentionally not answering his fire-question.

Natsu got a little irritated that she wouldn't answer the question that he wanted her to answer. He made the phrase _I dare you_ into bright fire while he said "Everybody sometimes gets put into a situation that they can't handle. It won't be too bad if I get to come to your rescue."

Yarrow smiled and shook her head. Natsu really was creative with his magic, "You have a good point, I guess I can allow it."

Erza stops and looks back, "What are you two doing?"

Natsu and Yarrow look at her with innocent expressions, or as innocent as they can be with their reputation.

"Natsu never makes a good point, and that wasn't a good point. What does that have to do with Natsu sneaking off at night so that Gajeel and Shark have to lock him in," It was entertaining at how flustered Erza was in this situation. "I heard your magic, Natsu, and you didn't set anything on fire. I say again: what were you two doing?"

Yarrow opened her mouth to say that they weren't doing anything but Natsu's expression changed as he jumped around Erza and took off towards the south though the forest. Moments later Yarrow followed in the same manner as she exclaimed over her shoulder, "Aberts is close!"

Yarrow was having issues keeping up with Natsu through the forest. She had to make her bones lighter just to keep up with his speed. Natsu was pulling away from her because she wasn't nearly as agile as he was. The rain falling through the canopy of the forest hit her like bullets as she flew through the understory.

She came to a small stream that was flooding where Natsu had stopped. A few moments after they both were stopped, the rest of the team showed up, bright red from the run and completely drenched from the rain.

"Why didn't you wait for us?" Happy said as he walked up to Natsu through the mud. He hadn't flown to where they were now because of the rain.

Both Dragon Slayers were positioned in an offensive stance looking into the heavy rain in a clearing on the other side of the stream. Yarrow informed the other mages, "The Aberts is on the other side of the clearing ahead."

"Happy, you go get the other group," Erza demanded in a harsh whisper. "Everyone, let's go."

At Erzas command, everyone darted out into the muddy field. There was a small rabbit-like creature with pitch black fur and glowing white eyes sitting near a pine tree. It saw the mages approaching it and bared its unnaturally sharp teeth. It slowly started morphing into the shape of a wolf.

Gray hit the ground with his fist, sending an ice make prison towards the animal. A little black blob darted between the closing cracks of the ice. The black blob retreated a few feet away from the advancing mages. The blob grew to the size of a small dog. It quickly burst into many tiny blobs that scurried towards the mages through the damp clearing. As they moved across the field, the blobs began to grow and take shapes of various animals: a snake, a bear, an elk, a wolf, a bison, a mountain lion, a moose, and a chimpanzee. Just enough to have one on one battles with all of the mages.

The one shaped like an elk charged at Yarrow. Its antlers lowered in offense, ran straight at her and clashed with her head on. She took the opportunity of the close vicinity to shatter the antlers on the monster. This seemed to anger the animal as half of its antlers fell to the ground in slivers.

Yarrow coated just her arms with her bone armor. She sees Shark fighting the snake shaped monster had similar reservations about preserving his magic. If this monster could split and control eight animals at one time, then they might have a battle in store from them.

Lucy summoned Taurus to fight the bison shaped monster. The clashing of the two bull's heads in the rain was almost deafening.

Yarrow tried to grab the animal's skull to shatter its braincase while they were still locked together. The animal quickly dodged her advance. It bugles at her in protest then it charges her again. This time it reaches her and rears up on its hind legs.

The dances of the eight couples continued on the battlefield, nobody being able to really do any significant damage on their partner.

"Lighting Fire Dragon Roar!" Natsu yelled when he thought that he had the bear shaped monster in a corner. Natsu became impatient with not being able to hit the bear monster.

There was a moment when everything seemed to move in slow motion. Everyone had heard Natsu yell out powerful dragon attack. They all knew to avoid his attack. Even the Aberts monster knew to avoid it at all costs.

Yarrow caught a hold of the skull of the elk. Her battle was over. She whipped her head around to see Natsu fall to the ground, unable to move after using too much of his magic on the attack.

The monstrous Aberts darted to the side quickly, despite its size, to avoid the Roar. The Roar hit the trees behind the Aberts. Natsu looked in horror as the animal approached him. It reared up on its hind legs, ready to strike with the bear-like paw that it had aimed right at Natsu's head.

Yarrow started running towards him. Knowing that Natsu was defenseless and no matter how many bones she had coated in him, the bones in his skull would collapse if he were hit.

Time slowed. The rain slowed in its fall to earth, Yarrows running became too drawn out. The bear paw slowly sliced through the rain and continued on its track to Natsu's head. Yarrow knew that she wasn't going to make it. She saw that other people were abandoning their battles to help as well, their own monsters at their heels. None of them would be able to prevent this attack.

Yarrow reached out her hand, willing herself to move faster, abandoning all of her bone armor in a cloud of bone dust and making her skeleton bones as light as she could to move faster.

As the bear was about to make contact with Natsu's head, something amazing happened. Natsu slid backwards on his own accord in the mud. Natsu looked around, knowing that there was no way that he could move on his own. The bear looked just as confused for a flickering second.

The bear shaped monster shook off its confusion and crashed though the heavy rain after the sliding body of Natsu with anger driving every lunge. All of the other mages that tried to help returned to their fights, as their monsters caught up with them, somehow knowing that Natsu's life was no longer in danger. They kept casting looks over to see what actually was going on.

Yarrow hadn't thought that she could do it. The bones that she coated in Natsu were what saved him. She could control her own bones, no matter where they were. She didn't realize that she could even do that to another person's body until this moment.

Yarrow dragged Natsu towards her, where she would be waiting to intercept the bear monster. As Natsu slid right to her side, she coated her right arm with bones and charged the bear head on.

Not knowing what to do, the bear returned the gesture of the frontal charge. The bear slowly realized that the bone mage was aiming for its head. It decided to pull back a second too late as Yarrows hand connected with the skull of the bear, shattering it to pieces beneath its black fur.

When Yarrow was sure that the bear would no longer move again, she rushed to help Natsu.

"Looks like you were the one to save me," Natsu laughed weakly as Yarrow slung his arm around her neck and helped him into a vertical position.

"You can make it up to me later," Yarrow smiled and started walking to a nearby tree to set him down at. Natsu tried to laugh, but it came out as a dismantled grunt.

The other team showed up suddenly, sweeping the battlefield. All of the new mages joined in battles to assist their guild mates. Gajeel struck the wolf shaped monster that Erza was fighting. Mirajane and Lisanna both jump in to help Lluvia fight the agile mountain lion monster. The rest of the group dispersed to aid their fellow guild mates.

Wendy rushed over to the tress where Yarrow had Natsu propped up against a tree.

"He used all of his magic up using the Lightning Fire Dragon Roar," Yarrow explained as Wendy kneeled next to Natsu. She got two stones and some pieces of paper out of her bag. She was smart, knowing that the best healing that Natsu could get was to eat fire. Yarrow stood over her to keep the heavy rain from rendering her paper useless.

There was a celebratory yell from the clearing. Yarrow turned to see what it was about. All of the monsters lay defeated in the clearing. Yarrow added her own applaud. Natsu muttered a weak applaud as well.

There was a sudden stirring in all of the felled monsters. Yarrow looked to see that there was a solid fire going and Natsu was instructed to wait until it was bigger so she could spread it. "Wendy, do you have things under control?" Yarrow had a bad feeling.

Wendy said she had a fire going that the rain couldn't put out. Yarrow darted to the battle field. All of the other mages knew that something was happening. Whatever it was, it wasn't going to be good.

* * *

Dun dun duuuuun

Dramatic? I dont know. However, there is only one (maybe two, depending on your definition) more chapter before things get fluffy between Natsu and Yarrow. I think it is going to be gunna be good. :)

Tell me what you think please.


	13. Finale

THE STORY IS NOT OVER HERE! The title of this chapter just so happens to be "Finale." The story will continue.

Sorry that I took so long to post. I have been spending a lot of time with my boyfriend before he goes off to do other Marine Corps things.

I fixed the "Lluvia" to "Juvia," the manga site that I read it from refers to her as Lluvia, so that's what I used, but I don't mind changing it.

* * *

The remains of all of the monsters stirred once again on the battlefield. They morphed into black lively blobs from where they fell. All of them started moving slowly through the muddy battlefield towards one another.

The mages were all too in shock and slightly curious as to what was going on.

"Shark, you able to help me?" Yarrow muttered as she stood next to her brother. Shark has more magic than her normally, and he was always ready to share.

Shark chuckled as a response and spat out all of his teeth into his hand. He tossed them at Yarrow next to him. Before they left his hands, he already had grown all of his sharp teeth back in his mouth.

Yarrow caught most of them, only two of the thirty two ended on the ground. She would have to worry about how disgusting his choice of bones was at a later time. He normally gave her a rib or a broken piece of his lance. She threw them all in her mouth swallowed them whole. She smiled, sensing her magic increase.

"That was really disgusting," Lucy looks at the two bone mages horrified.

"You get used to it," Shark laughed. Lucy shivered, she would never get used to seeing anyone eat teeth.

"That is impossible to get used to," Lucy muttered. Loke was now by her side, waiting for the next battle to start.

Shark grew a large spike out of his shoulder. He pulled on it and obtained his weapon, a broadsword shaped bone.

The black blobs finally met each other in the middle of the field. When they all touched, a bright light swept over the clearing. Every rain drop had a shadow that projected far in the bright light, streaking the vision of all the mages gathered in the area.

"_You little maggots are causing me a lot of trouble!_" a voice echoed out of the blob. "_I will exterminate all of you!_"

After the light dulled, the blob was revealed. The blob was alive with movement. It was like the monster didn't know what form to take, the forms of different animals showed in every direction, as if the animals were trying to escape the blob. The monster decided what it was going to morph into as the blobs started allocating themselves in a more determined way. The entire monster lifted into the sky, to hover as it changed its form.

Yarrow was horrified as she saw what it was morphing into and let out an audible gasp.

"Is that a…a dragon?" Yarrow looked in horror at the monster that was taking the shape of the very creature that raised her and three of her fellow guild mates.

Gajeel's eyes widened as the final form of a large, furry, black dragon with glowing white eyes formed in the sky. The tail lengthened to look like a black whip attached to the dragon. It hovered for a moment before landing back in the mud with a squish. It looked at the faces of the mages surrounding it.

The mages didn't give it a chance to muster up strength to attack. In unison all of the standing mages attacked the monster in a dragon form.

The mages all jumped away from the monster after their attack. They all knew that it wasn't enough to take down the dragon.

"_Was that your best shot?_" The monster laughed at the feeble attempts the mages took against it.

Erza was in her knight armor; Mirajane was in her Satan takeover form. Everyone was at their best. Even Shark and Yarrow grew another, denser layer of armor around themselves.

"Wendy, hurry up with healing Natsu," Erza yelled at the Sky Dragon Slayer. All of them knew that Natsu has some of the most destructive power, and that they would need him to defeat this monster.

The battle continued, everyone attacking whenever they saw an opening that wouldn't endanger any of the other members of the guild. Yarrow got close to the dragon-shaped monsters feet, trying to get a hold of it to shatter bones.

It was like it knew what all of her major attacks were. She looked around, everyone was fairing the same. The monsters that had fought all of them seemed to have retained their knowledge of each of the mages' major attacks. It was learning.

"I think that it knows all of our attacks from when we defeated the monsters that it absorbed," Levi yelled as she wrote a rune to try to trap the monster. The monster heard the smart rune mage. It gave out a blood-curling screech that seemed to vibrate the rain as it fell. The angry reaction reinforced Levi's words credibility.

The Aberts reared its head back after its initial screech, it was a motion that a few of the mages in the guild recognized. That motion is that of a dragon readying itself to roar. It was aiming itself right in the direction of the busy and defenseless Levi.

Gajeel bellowed in anger as he splashed through the mud to the aid of the tiny rune mage. The dragon shape of the Aberts moved to its final motion of the attack as Gajeel planted himself defensively in front of the bluenette. Gajeel stood, waiting for the attack, bracing himself in the mud to defend his guild mate.

The roar was replaced with a loud screech from the monster. The monster couldn't do a dragon roar. It was just an imposter.

Some of the mages covered their ears, the rain seemed to tremble and alter their paths towards the earth. Instead, all of the rain between the dragon and the Iron Dragon Slayer was slightly projected towards the iron mage.

The monster was still on the ground as it screeched at the Iron Dragon Slayer. Juvia attacked the monster with a wave of water. The monster seemed unfazed by her attack.

The battle dragged on, the long range mages were as effective as the close range fighters. None of the attacks from any of the mages were accurately hitting the monster.

Shark charged the dragon shaped monster from the back. The monster heard his splashing as he approached and flicked its whip-like tail at him. Shark flew into a nearby tree. His bone armor on his chest was completely shattered. It fell in chunks to the muddy ground around him. Shark gasped as the air finally caught up with him and was filling his lungs once again.

"Shark!" Yarrow saw him and tried to make a move to go to his aid. The monster continued to flicking its tail, arms, and wings everywhere to attack all of the mages in the field. Lucy was thrown in a similar manner as Shark, Levi and Gray were also flung from the fight.

"I'll be fine, pay attention!" Shark tried to yell at his sister. He was a regeneration mage, so he would be fine if he was given enough time to repair the damage that the monster just inflicted on him. He was more concerned for the other mages. Many other mages were attacked just like he was. Many were laying in the mud, just out of reach of the monsters flailing limbs.

Loke was dragging Lucy out of the way of the monster. Lucy didn't look too hurt, just knocked out. Loke got her to a safe distance and went to retrieve more of the fallen Fairy Tail mages. Elfman was standing in front of Lisanna as Cana helped her to her feet to retreat back to the tree line near Lucy.

Gajeel, Erza, Mirajane, Evergreen and Yarrow were circling the Aberts. They were trying to figure out how to attack this thing so that it wouldn't know what hit it.

There was a loud shout as Happy scooped Natsu up and flew above the battleground. He obviously had finished eating the fire that Wendy left near him. Wendy looked at her struggling guild mates, she was determined to help. She ran to take an offensive stance near the monster next to all of her nakama.

Gray, though dangerously low on magic, saw an opportunity to trap the monster. With the help of Juvia moving water, the monster was frozen in the muddy ground. The Aberts looked at its feet in surprise. The ice restraints wouldn't last long if the monster was to attempt to escape. The monster's eyes were locked on the falling ice mage.

Gray was now out of magic and was falling to the ground. The monster lashed out his wing at his imprisoner. The massive black wing hit Gray right in the middle of his chest. He was launched several feet before he went skidding into the slick mud. He landed right on his shoulder. He let out a yelp and there was a loud crack that emanated from his shoulder. Something was defiantly broken.

The monster then attacked Evergreen with his tail. She didn't see the whip-like tail until it made contact with her side. She flew into Mirajane, taking both of them to the ground.

Mirajane abandoned the battle to make sure that everyone was out of the reach of the monster.

The Dragon Slayers and Erza were all on different sides of the trapped monster. Gajeel, Yarrow, Erza and Wendy were surrounding it on the ground while Natsu was in the air with the aid of Happy. They all noticed each other and knew that they were all going to attack at once.

Yarrow had never done a Roar in a battle. She had only practiced her Roar a few times, with none of them really working. She only produced a few femur bones that weren't flung far. It was more of a slow vomit of bones than a Roar. She knew that there was no other long-distance attack that she could use.

Yarrow took her stance as the other Dragon Slayers did the same. Erza was readying herself to do her 10 dancing sword attack. Yarrow would try her Roar. She would not let fear of it not working hinder her progress. She was with her nakama, she would be able to do it.

"Dragon Roar!" All of the Dragon Slayers yelled and unleashed their magic at the monster that was impersonating their beloved dragon kin. Erza followed with her attack.

There was a bright light as all of the Dragon Slayers unleashed their Roars at the immobile monster. There was a loud, deafening screech from the monster as the attacks approached it. The screech quickly faded as the four roars swallowed the monster.

Yarrow fell to her knees in a small puddle, her armor falling around her in a fine dust, mixing with the mud. She had a slight smile on her shocked face. She did it. She actually successfully did a Bone Dragon Roar. It hit its mark. It did damage. It was more than a few femur bones at her feet.

After the light faded, the weakened form of the monster was revealed. The Aberts' eyes were large from the shock of what just happened. It was scorched and wind blown, it had iron, swords and bone lodged deep into its skin, covering its entire body.

Happy recuperated from the backlash of Natsu's roar in midair and landed close to the rest of the other mages. Natsu stood in a defensive stance, facing the monster.

The Aberts flopped on the ground, its fur fading to a light grey color. It let out whimpers, not able to make any noise louder than that from the extent of damage it received from the bombardment of Dragon Roars.

Mirajane and Erza took the opportunity to rush in and deliver an attack right to the head of the struggling monster. The two moved in shocking sync right to the source of the whimpering.

The Aberts stopped moving.

The mages all yelled out in celebration. Even the people who were rendered immobile applauded from their motionless states. The felled body of the monster morphed into a small dog shaped blob that turned into a light grey, ashen color. The monster was defeated. For good, this time.

Yarrow struggles to her feet, she goes over to Shark first. He still had chunks of his armor still attached to his torso and his arms. She quickly dissolved the remaining armor so he could focus on healing. He smiles at her in thanks. She knows better than to try to assess his other bone injuries. He was already actively repairing himself. He just needed to focus and needed some time.

Yarrow stumbles over to Gray. He was still in the mud from when the monster threw him. She rolled him onto his back as quickly as she could. She knew from just looking at him that his shoulder was dislocated, but thankfully nothing was broken.

She adjusted Gray so that she could reset his shoulder. He let out a surprised cry when she set it without warning him. He grasped his shoulder. Yarrow stuck her thumb on his forehead, that was her way of having a base to see if there was any bones that were broken or dislocated in his body.

She smiled, there was nothing else wrong with him.

Juvia walked over to Yarrow. Yarrow didn't wait for her to say a word, instead she placed her thumb on the water mages forehead. Yarrow gasped when she did this. Juvia didn't have any bones. She knew that her body was made out of water, but she thought that she only did that during a battle. Instead of using all of her magic on sensing that Juvia didn't have any bones, she stumbled around to the rest of her nakama to fix their bones.

The clouds cleared from and the sun peaked out from behind the dark clouds. A calm, light drizzle of rain continued to fall from the clearing sky. The storm was over.

* * *

The mages trudged back to the spa where Makarov was waiting. Most of them were carrying each other. There were few residences that came out to give them water or thank them, noticing the grey form that was being dragged through the town on a cart.

Makarov must have some sort of telepathy for knowing when they were returning at that moment. He walked out of the door and pretended to look surprised to see them. His children were wounded and celebrating with the ashen colored blob of the monster behind them.

Yarrow and Shark were helping each other walk down the streets. Shark looked untouched because of his rapid regeneration, but he looked like a walking zombie, still holding his chest. Yarrow was holding him up more than he was to her, but her face spelled out complete happiness though her body looked like a train wreck.

Everyone was in a similar state: Gajeel was carrying the near asleep Levi, Elfman was gingerly holding his little sister up, Wendy and Lucy were holding each other up and Natsu was helping Gray stand upright. All of the members of Fairy Tail looked more than just mages of a guild, they looked like an unstoppable, indestructible family that would stop at nothing to protect one another.

Makarov was met with the smiling faces of the members of his guild, knowing that they would have no problem in restoring the name of Fairy Tail. He looked at the bleeding members and his smile quickly faded. "What are you doing back here?! Get to the hospital now!"

Makarov took the monster and made a b-line to the leaders of the town, cursing the young members of his guild because they came to the spa before they received any medical treatment.

Such a reckless guild, Fairy Tail.

* * *

I say again, it is not over. There will be another chapter!

Till next time,

Amber


	14. Celebrate

Hopefully this chapter will make it clear as to the differences between Yarrow and Sharks magical abilities.

Happy Holidays! :)

* * *

**PART FOURTEEN: CELEBRATE**

When all of the mages swarmed the hospital, they took the lone nurse by surprise. Most of the other nurses weren't working because there was nobody in the town to look after.

When the nurse started to look over the wounded mages, she was shocked. She was assessing the mages one at a time, noticing that there were many deep bruises and cuts, but none of the mages had any broke bones, not even minor fractures. The nurse checked over the most injured areas on the mages again and again. All of the locations where there were lots of damage on the flesh had no damage on the bone.

"Don't worry about the bones," Yarrow put her hand on the nurse's shoulder. "I heal bones, they are all taken care of."

The nurse's eyes fluttered to Shark. He appeared to be fine, but he was still grasping his chest to make his bones and organs repair themselves.

"Just leave him," Lisanna said, seeing the confusion on the face of the nurse.

"He has a rapid regeneration ability, he just needs some time and to be left alone," Yarrow said. The nurse was wrapping up Yarrows forearm where she was cut in the battle.

"I have heard of you two from the guest doctors," The nurse said. "The Horned Devils. You help out hospitals around Magnolia."

"Yep, mages from Fairy Tail," Yarrow said. She was proud to finally be able to associate her title of a Horned Devils to her guild.

"I wasn't aware that the Horned Devils were a part of a guild," the nurse didn't seem too surprised. "But we are lucky to have Fairy Tail come and exterminate the monster. Sabertooth and a few other guilds didn't even look twice at the job. Now, maybe we can get our tourists back and out nightlife too."

"Nightlife?" Lucy asked. More nurses were called in to look after all of the wounded mages. Lucy had a few bandages, but her normal smile was back on her face.

"Yeah, this city was known as the nightlife central for a while, but the loss of all of the tourists changed that," another nurse started talking about all of the bars and the clubs that were planning on opening again within the week, now that the monster was slain. Cana was happy to hear that there would be another bar open in the town that wasn't the bar in the spa.

Yarrow was released from her nurse after she was thoroughly bandaged. She walked over to Shark and Natsu who were sitting on a bench off to the side.

Natsu had a bandage on his cheek and a few on his arms and torso. Shark refused to be bandaged since he wasn't bleeding.

"Stubborn goat," Yarrow said to her brother sitting between the two.

"Show off," Shark cursed at his sister. She chuckled at the resilience of her brother. "Playing with bones in other people, you don't know what I have to come up with to be just as cool as that. You made Natsu look like a puppet."

"You need to focus on healing, then you can think of some other way to be cool later," Yarrow knew not to try to heal any of his bones, his magic and hers clashed whenever his body was regenerating and she would try to help. It made Shark be in pain and Yarrow feel useless. They both just agreed that she would heal him if it was a difficult bone to heal.

"That was pretty cool," Natsu said. "I had no idea what was going on."

"I barely knew what was going on either," Yarrow admitted, turning her attention to the rose haired mage, "I could make little dolls out of bones and make them walk around when I was a kid, but I didn't think that I could do that in another living thing."

"Well, I am glad that you can," Natsu grinned at his savior.

"Natsu would have been in much worse shape if you hadn't done anything," Gajeel was finished being checked by the nurses and walked up to their little group.

Slowly everyone was fully bandaged and looking like they had regained a lot of their magic. Shark was still sluggish and still healing parts of his organs. The hit he took was almost too much for him to heal.

At some point, Yarrow got a bunch of the hospital-issue milk cartons and was sharing a crate with Shark. They were downing the tiny cartons pretty fast.

"I think that we all should go get something to eat," Erza said as the last little carton of milk was gulped by the recovering Shark.

"I couldn't agree more," Natsu exclaimed, jumping up. Happy was agreeing with him. Those two always jump at the opportunity for food.

Lisanna helped Shark stand up and walk him out of the hospital with the rest of the group. Makarov said that he would make sure that the bills were paid for. The nurses still looked hesitant as the mages left the building. Still amazed that none of them had any broken bones.

The mages scouted out an all-you-can-eat-café type restaurant between the hospital and the spa. The owners were happy to see them. They were probably the first customers they've had ever since the monster showed up in the mountains. All of the tourists were scared away and the residents mostly were mostly self-sufficient.

The mages got the entire café to themselves. The hostess quickly realized that she would prefer no customers at all to the rowdy group of mages. They were just as loud and rambunctious as they are when they are at the guild hall.

It wasn't long before a small portion of the group started to quiet down in the corner, the tiredness from the day setting in.

"Hey, how about we have another round of truth or dare?" Levi said. She was under the arm of Gajeel who insisted that her presence was making him feel better.

A few other people agreed. Most of the dares were composed of eating random mixtures of the food or some exotic dish. There were some embarrassing truths asked, like if the person picked their nose.

Shark, Yarrow, Natsu and Happy were all trying hard not to be noticed by the small group that started playing. Natsu's mind wandered back to the truth or dare game that he and Yarrow had a few nights ago.

"Lisanna, I dare you to go and kiss Shark," Levi said devilishly.

Shark snapped out of his groggy state from having no magic left from fully healing himself. He was greeted out of his stupor with a kiss from the white-haired transformation mage. Like the day before, his eyes widened. He then relaxed and returned the gesture.

After a moment Lisanna whispered, "Shark, truth or dare?"

"Truth." Shark said after considering his options there.

Lisanna blushed and quietly asked, "Do you like me?"

Shark replied with a shy smirk and another kiss to the little mage.

Yarrow knew that this would eventually happen, but she still couldn't help to want to harass her brother. She decided to keep her bantering for later. Everyone in the guild knew who she liked now. It was inevitable that if she joined this game, she would have to do something with Natsu.

After another few moments of Yarrow awkwardly looking elsewhere, Shark abruptly asked, "Natsu, truth or dare?"

"Dare." Natsu didn't hesitate. Shark was a horrible player at this game, so Natsu would have it easy.

After a few moments of considering, Shark decided, "I dare you to go over to Cana, steal her drink and then splash Gray with it."

Natsu laughed, "You are wasting a good dare on that?"

Yarrow was the one to reply with a devilish smirk, knowing that Natsu would get her reference, "A dare is a dare."

Natsu looked at Yarrow with his grin that showed off his fangs. He quickly made his way across the room to Cana and stole her drink and ran over to Gray before she could chase after him. He poured the half-empty drink on the top of the ice-mages head.

"If I didn't know that was a dare and I wasn't so tired, I would kick your ass!" Gray exclaimed grabbing Natsu's scarf.

Erza broke up the almost-fight between the two. Natsu settled back down by Yarrow. Lisanna and Shark were now making out. A mischievous look struck Natsu's face.

"Yarrow, truth or dare?" He asked, giving a toothy, trouble-maker grin at her.

"Didn't you get enough of this before?" Yarrow sighed. Her comment got a death glare from Erza. She was about to fire questions about what she meant when Natsu ignored Erza and pressed for cooperation from the Bone Dragon Slayer.

"I enjoy this game with you," Natsu stated.

"Obviously," Yarrow sighed. She had a pile of empty glasses that were once filled with milk in front of her. She took another glass that was partially full and took a drink.

Natsu's grin was replaced with a cocky grin that made Yarrows heart skip a beat, "You're avoiding my question again."

"Fine, dare," Yarrow was still intent on not saying truth, "No cheating this time, or I won't play with you anymore."

Natsu's grin twisted into a hybrid of his signature cocky one with some mischievous nature added to it.

Erza stood up, not liking that her fun would be ruined by this game of truth or dare if she allowed him to finish that dare.

That moment, Makarov walked in with the hostess of the café close behind him. The hostess was pale with the shock of all of the damage that the mage guild was causing in the tiny little café. Yarrow's attention snapped from Natsu to the master of Fair Tail. Natsu followed her gaze. Everyone else soon settled down and looked up at the master. Even Lisanna and Shark stopped their activity to look at the master.

"The mission is complete!" Makarov exclaimed when he got the attention of everyone in the guild, earning himself an explosive applaud from all of the members of Fairy Tail. "The town leaders are very grateful for our help and are more than willing to help the word that Fairy Tail has returned!"

Everyone was rejoicing.

Makarov waited for the applause to die down before he made another statement, "I have received a request that if you are finished in the café, to leave the building. After all, this isn't our guild."

The hostess behind him blushed. She looked like she was just the messenger.

Most of the guild stuffed a few more items of food in their mouths and sulked out of the café. There were a few that stayed in for a while longer.

Outside the café was a picnic table under a tree. Juvia clears off all the water that accumulated on the picnic table from the rain. Clouds still hung in the sky above the mountains, but there are clear skies over the city.

Juvia called over Grey to sit next to her. She wasn't expecting for Erza and Lucy to tail behind the ice mage. Juvia glared at Lucy, still thinking that there was a romantic competition with her.

Happy, Natsu and Yarrow walked out together, leaving the kissing Shark and Lisanna in the café. Natsu saw them under the tree and dragged Yarrow over. She didn't protest. She was too exhausted to walk all the way back to the spa to pretend to fall asleep in the room.

"Well, I am glad that is over!" Yarrow sat down in the middle of the bench. Juvia, Gray, Lucy and Erza were lined up on one side of the picnic table, leaving half of table unoccupied. Happy hopped up on the table between Yarrow and Natsus elbows.

"It was nice to stretch my magic abilities," Erza said. She stole a cup of coffee from the café and was sipping on it.

Shark and Lisanna walk out of the café with their hands laced together. They come over to the table. Shark sits down next to his sister and Lisanna takes the remaining spot on the other side of him.

"How come I am always sitting between you two?" Yarrow asks to no one particularly.

"Mostly it is because you throw your butt in my face to squeeze between us," Shark cackled. Erza glared at him to tell him that she wouldn't tolerate it if he said anything about Yarrow always sitting next to Natsu.

As if he were coming to Yarrows defense, Happy commented, "Shark and Lisanna are in looooove!"

Sharks eyes widened and Lisanna turned a dark shade of red. Lucy shrieked and told Happy not to say those things. Shark tried not to match the blush on the silver haired mage. Juvia muttered that Happy never said that about her and Gray.

Yarrow guarded Happy from Shark as he tried to make a grab at the little blue cat. Erza glared at all of the people who were on the verge of fighting. There were still glares thrown between Natsu and Shark. Natsu wanted to defend his best friend.

Gajeel and Levi stopped by the table on their way out of the café. They bid everyone goodnight and walked back to the hotel with Gajeel walking with his arm over the bluenette's shoulder.

Yarrow was surprised that it was already sunset. They had a long day of searching, fighting and celebrating. She hadn't noticed that it was getting cold now that the sun had disappeared over the horizon. She had shed her drenched and torn jacket at the room before they went to the hospital.

Gray and Shark were fighting about something or other. They were ignoring Erzas protests to not fight. Lucy was playfully teasing Lisanna about blushing so much. She said that it was no secret that she liked Shark and Shark liked her.

Yarrow shivered, she was still not completely warm from the rain that day. She put her hands on the table, readying herself to declare that it was cold and she was heading back to the room.

She was stopped by Natsu grabbing her wrist. Yarrow looked at him surprised.

Natsu smiled, "Whenever you start shivering, you leave. We are having too much fun with you here for you to go now."

Yarrow looks at her fellow Dragon Slayer. Natsu wraps his arm around her shoulder, "I am the most capable person here to keep you warm."

Yarrow takes a moment to register what just happened. She slowly starts to get red in the face. She knew that she wouldn't be able to escape with Natsu holding her down.

Erza was glaring at the gesture from the Fire Dragon Slayer, but otherwise stayed silent.

Lucy smacks Natsu across the table, "Whenever I am cold, you just tell me 'tough luck'!"

"That's not true, I let you use my sleeping bag once," Natsu remembered the time that Lucy followed him and Happy up into the mountains to get Makao back.

"They are in loooooooove!" Happy coos as he flies out of reach of the Dragon Slayers.

Erza and Lucy hang their heads, chatting with each other in their depressed states about how they weren't moving along with their plan fast enough.

Yarrow would have yelled in victory at Erza because she wouldn't be able to haze her anymore if she wasn't completely frozen from the shock of the sweet gesture from the otherwise intense fire mage.

After a few moments, Happy settled back down on the table, near Lisanna. Shark would occasionally lean back and glare at the pink haired mage. He still wasn't sure if he liked the situation with his sister and the obnoxious fire mage.

Yarrow was slowly sinking her head into her shoulders to try to hide the dark blush on her face.

Natsu turned so that one of his legs was behind Yarrows sitting form. He took the new opportunity to wrap both of his arms around the bone mage.

Yarrows eyes widened. She never thought that being close to the fire mage would feel so…warm. Yarrow sighed, knowing that it was to be expected from the fire mage that he was warm. Despite the warmth from Natsu, Yarrow shivered again, this time due to the closeness.

Natsu rested his head on Yarrows shoulder.

"Hey, Shark, why don't you tell us about one of your missions that you did?" Lisanna asked. She knew that Yarrow wouldn't be likely to respond at all at the moment. She was far too preoccupied with remembering how to breathe.

* * *

Lots of fluff is coming :) I am excited for you.

Till next time,

Amber


	15. Secret Game

I'm in a good, Christmas mood, so I'll give you another one :). I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Also, thank you so much for the glowing reviews :) I thought that I sucked at writing action scenes, so I am glad that they didn't end up too horrible.

* * *

**PART FIFTEEN: SECRET GAME**

Shark was in the middle of telling a story about one of his solo jobs. He knew better than to tell a story about one that he did with Yarrow. He tends to exaggerate and Yarrow always corrects him whenever he does. It makes him seem so uncool.

Yarrow wasn't paying much attention to Shark's story, even if it were about a mission they did. She was preoccupied with how close Natsu was to her. She was struggling to keep her heartbeat under control. She was positive that her fellow Dragon Slayer would be able to hear its erratic beating.

Natsu wasn't paying much attention to the story either. He took advantage of the closeness between him and Yarrow to whisper in her ear, "You still owe me a dare from the game earlier."

Yarrow went ridged as his breath hit her neck, it took a moment for her to process what he said. Her concentration on keeping her blush at bay was broken as all of the blood rushed to her face. She had to take a breath before she replied, "be nice, I don't want them to interrupt our game."

Natsu devilishly smirks next to her, "I dare you to tell me a secret."

Yarrows eyes narrowed, trying to glare at the fire mage behind her. She hisses at him silently, "I thought that you agreed not to break the rules."

She didn't want to draw attention to them. Little did she know, she was playing right in to Natsu's hand by restricting the game to low whispers.

"I could always change the dare to something that will get the attention of everyone here, you don't want that do you?" Yarrow felt Natsu laugh. He knew that she would see things his way.

She sat there for a moment, pouting at how Natsu was cheating and she couldn't do anything about it, "I am addicted to chocolate, so much that I will go through withdrawals."

"That wasn't a good secret," Natsu whined in her ear.

"Truth or dare, Master Natsu?" Yarrow ignored his comment. She would resist his cheating as much as possible.

"Dare," He said softly in her ear and pulled her a little closer. He was brave for choosing dare. Last time he did that, she punished him for cheating by daring him to kiss his rival. He was counting on the fact that she didn't want to draw the attention of the other mages at the table.

Yarrows face reddened after he pulled her closer. Her already erratic heartbeat was going crazy, "I dare you to play by the rules."

"I am playing by the rules. Jeeze, there you go again, wasting another good dare," Natsus voice started to sound more like purring in her ear, "Truth or Dare?"

Yarrow sighed, at least she tried to make him obey the rules. She had a feeling that if she said either answer, she would have to tell him a truth, she would at least stick to her guns for a while, "Dare."

Natsu loosened his grip on her for a moment, he hmmed for a second, "I dare you to tell me your favorite time of year."

"You're still not playing by the rules," Yarrow hissed at him. She earned herself a glare from Shark, who was listening to a story from Erza.

"Would you rather I dare you to sing it out loudly?" Natsu's devilish smile never left his face.

Yarrow was quiet for a moment. She wouldn't want to sing at all, but she wouldn't put it past Natsu to make her do that dare instead. She sighed once again and answered, "Winter nights." She didn't give him a chance to ask anything else, "Truth or dare?"

"Truth" Natsu whispered. His breath was warm against Yarrows neck. It sent a shiver down her spine. Erza glared at the two, now listening to a story Shark was telling.

Yarrow was preoccupied with remembering how to breath to be able to ask him an original question. She mimics his question, "When is your favorite time of year?"

"Summer, duh," Natsu wasn't impressed with her lack of originality, "Truth or Dare?"

Yarrow sort of got used to the closeness between the two, if only a little. "Dare," she was sure that she would be answering a question again.

"Why do you like winter more than summer?" His name means summer and he loves that season so much he was confused on why anyone could like winter over it.

"I like it when the air is cold and I am warm," Natsu pulled her closer as to declare 'you're welcome' to her for fending off the cold. He laughed a little in Yarrows ear. "Truth or dare, Master Natsu?"

"Dare," He was proud of himself for keeping Yarrow with him even in the cold.

Yarrow smiled. She was excited about being so close to the fire mage. Their secret game was making the experience even more thrilling. For all she cared all of the other mages at the table could have disappeared off the face of the planet, and she wouldn't have noticed. She looked up to see that Lisanna was telling a story about when they were little, before Shark and Yarrow joined the guild.

Yarrow got an idea. If she couldn't beat Natsu, join him, "I dare you to tell me a secret."

"That's cheating," Natsu mimicked her earlier protest.

"I am only doing the same thing that you did," Yarrow was proud to get the reaction out of the fire mage, "A dare is a dare."

Natsu silently agreed. "Okay, just let me think for a minute. I am actually going to answer with a good secret, not some obvious addiction."

Yarrow was sure that he was trying to mock her and her secret that she told him. Natsu was taking a while to think of a secret that he wanted to tell Yarrow. Yarrow started to listen to another story that Shark was telling about when he went to act in a play.

Shark was saying that he was wanted on a job to be an actor so they could actually beat him up on stage and then he would come back on stage ten minutes later completely unscratched. Since he was a regeneration mage, that was a role that only he could play.

Yarrow remembered that mission. He played the Prince in the production. It was actually pretty good, she was there at the first curtain, when Shark was still a little nervous about acting. Once real blood shed on the stage, he was deemed the perfect actor and the crowd knew it. He occasionally goes back to play minor roles in the theater.

"I want to know everything about you," Natsu whispered softly in Yarrows ear. The sudden warm breath on her neck made her shiver again. "That's my secret."

Yarrow reddens. She wasn't expecting that.

"Truth or dare," Natsu purred into her ear. Yarrow didn't know just a tone of voice would be able to make her shiver.

"Does it matter?" Yarrow asked. She was about to give up with trying to get Natsu to play fair.

"Yes," the purr in his voice and his hot breath on her neck sent another rush of shivers down her back.

"Dare," She was going to try to keep her wall up.

Yarrow felt the fire mage laugh around her, "I dare you to tell me another secret. This time, it has to be good, like something that you haven't told anyone."

Yarrow was quiet. Natsu seemed to realize the effect his breath had on her neck and would occasionally breath on her neck  
to make her shiver. She didn't know anything off of the top of her head that she was willing to tell Natsu, and it wasn't helping that her thought process was being interrupted by the fire mage short circuiting her thought process with his breath. She furrowed her brow in thought.

Yarrow was taking too long to think of something, Natsu decided to encourage her, "A dare is a dare."

Yarrow suddenly thought of something that she hasn't told anyone else, "I enjoy wearing the collar and addressing you as Master."

Natsu was becoming more bold in his closeness to Yarrow. He pulled her closer to him and ran his nose over her ear and purred out a whisper, "That's good because I like it too."

Yarrow shivered yet again at his hot breath hitting a new part of her neck that wasn't used to the bombardment. Her breathing shallowed.

"Dare me to tell you why," he breathed in her ear. It was like his words short circuited her brain. She couldn't speak, instead she just nodded, hoping that he would know what that meant.

"I like the way it makes you appear to _belong_ to me," Natsu boldly nuzzled her neck above the object of interest. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth" Yarrow stuttered, she was more choosing a word more than choosing an action. She was still processing what Natsu just said and it wasn't easy with his actions.

Natsu continued his distraction of the bone mage. He was trying to preoccupy her so that she will play by his rules, "What does it mean that you are eyeballing me?"

"Will you two stop that?!" Shark exclaimed. "Yarrow is shaking like a human maraca and it is very hard to focus on telling my story!"

Now that he mentioned it, Yarrow noticed that she was shaking almost violently in the arms of the Fire Dragon Slayer. She snapped out of her trance that she was put in. Natsu also ceased what he was doing and looked innocently over to the regeneration mage.

"What do you mean?" Natsu had a glimmer in his eyes that knew exactly what was bothering Shark.

"I would like to second that, you are very distracting," Lucy interjected with a blank look on her face.

"They are in looooove!" Happy circled the two Dragon Slayers once again. This time, he wasn't met with any rejection. Yarrow finally processed everything that just happened. She maintained her deep blush.

"Yarrow, why don't you tell us about a mission you did. All Shark told us was ones he did," Lisanna asked. Yarrow mentally thanked the transformation mage for saving her.

"I don't know, I mostly just go from town to town helping out at the hospitals whenever I go on anything alone," Yarrow said. Her voice was soft and she was thankful that Natsu had stopped his breathing on her neck. She could actually think straight.

"You must have ran into a few interesting people! Even some cool mages!" Lucy pressured.

"Oh yeah! Tell him about that one kid!" Shark yelled, slamming his hand down on the table.

"That's specific" Yarrow glared at her brother.

"The one that is in that one town that was in the hospital every time you were there," Shark got an evil glimmer in his eyes.

"That's specific," Gray muttered as he leaned back, echoing Yarrow.

Yarrow thought for a moment, "Oh yeah, that kid! I don't want to remember him! His annoyances finally left my mind!"

"You complained about him for at least four years, he wouldn't leave you alone!" Shark cackled, enjoying that he just shattered his sisters resolve to not remember him.

"What is this about, you are making me curious," Natsu shifted his arms down around Yarrows waist and tightly embraced her.

"Well, about a year or so after you guys went to the island. I had healed all of the bones of the people in the hospital in Magnolia for the week. One of the nurses told me to go to other towns because there were a lot of hospitals that were trying to send people with broken bones to Magnolia," She was getting into her story.

"I was only 12 or so, so one of the nurses said that she was going to visit her sister in a town way to the west of town," Yarrow stated. "I can't recall the name of it, but now I refer to it as the town with the kid."

"Does that matter?" Shark interrupted.

"You like this kid, so shut up Kikotsu," Yarrow used her brothers' real name, making him hiss at her. He hated it when she used his real name, "As I was saying, I went to the city with the nurse. She and her sister said that I could stay with them while they were there and then take me back to Magnolia when the nurse left. The nurse took me to the hospital with her the next day. She explained that I could heal bones and that I was more than willing to help."

"Get to it already!" Shark exclaimed, excited as Yarrows face fell as the memory of meeting the kid came back to her.

"I didn't interrupt your stories, Shark," Yarrow glared at her brother.

Shark huffed and crossed his arms, "That was because you weren't even paying attention to my stories!"

"The doctors at the hospital there were happy to hear that I could heal mages. Apparently, a bunch of mages got into a fight in the city the previous day," Yarrow ignored Shark's comment and continued her story. "They took me to the place where they were keeping the mages that got the most injuries. I told them that I can only heal bones, but the doctor assured me that the mages would need any and all help that they could get.

"I went in and most of the mages were older people that were really surprised that I could heal bones. The last person I tended to was a little kid about my age. I was shocked to see that such a little kid was in the fight with all of the other mages I healed. From what I heard, the little kid had some guts and a lot of destructive power." Yarrow went on.

"All of the other mages she healed were bragging about the battle, and they all had mentioned a destructive little kid," Shark explained. "She didn't know that she would be healing the little kid."

"Thanks, Shark," Yarrow fought to control her own story again.

"So this little kid beat up all of the other mages?" Gray asked, leaning on his arms.

"Not really, he was just part of the fight and was memorable," Yarrow explained. "But the little kid smelled a lot like Laxus."

"You never told me that," Shark pouted at the new information.

"It was the main reason that the kid bothered me. Don't tell me you forgot that I told you that," Yarrow glared at her brother for interrupting her story once again.

"Do you think they are related?" Lucy asked. Destructive magic and smelling like Laxus was too similar.

"Defiantly not!" Yarrow exclaimed. Everyone was silent for a moment before she continued, "This kid reminded me a lot of you guys. I mean all of the Fairy Tail mages, he had a certain Fairy quality about him. He told me he wasn't part of a guild, but he wanted to join, so he fought alongside the guild he wanted to join that day. But the guild was fighting another guild, the council disbanded it immediately."

"Really? What guild was it?" Lucy asked.

"I don't remember, some guild that was created and then disbanded within six months," Yarrow sighed. "But the kid was nice to me, but he still bothered me."

"Every single time Yarrow went back to that city, he would always be at the hospital. A lot of the time he wasn't even injured!" Shark yelled, getting impatient with the slowness of his sisters version of the story. He took complete control of the story.

"Ah, he had a crush on you!" Lisanna chirped in. Natsu responded to this by tightening his grip around Yarrow. He was making sure that this kid in the story would know that he wasn't getting her.

"Yarrow told me that when he was injured, he would have flowers near his bed. She would ask him if they were from a girlfriend. He would say no and say that they were for her!" Shark started laughing. Yarrow laughed at the memory of her walking into the guild with flowers in her hands. All of the members asked her who they were from.

"That is very sweet of that kid," Erza said nodding her head.

Juvia wasn't as impressed, "That is really cheesy."

"I know right!" Yarrow agreed with the water mage. "He was always there with flowers after that. It was ridiculous! He never got the hint that I was only there for money, not to see him."

Natsu outburst, "Who is this kid!"

"I don't know, I stopped going to that hospital when they changed policies and management. The city no longer allows for freelance healer mages into the hospital for pay," Yarrow tried to calm the fire mage by further explaining. "The only reason I kept going back to the city is that they paid me well whenever I helped the hospital."

"I don't like this kid," Natsu stated as he put his head back down on Yarrows shoulder.

"But it lasted for four years." Shark cackled at the discomfort he was making Natsu feel. "We all would know what city Yarrow went to because she would always come back with flowers."

"Well I couldn't just reject them," Yarrow pouted. She knew what her brother was doing. "And half way through that time, he ended up joining a guild in a nearby city. He always was talking about becoming a strong mage. He wanted me to join that guild too, saying that they would treat me nice if I healed all of their bones."

"Come on, tell them more," Shark whispered with a cackle.

"What else is there?" Gray asked.

"He brought in his friend to try to convince me to join that guild, but I obviously declined them, seeing as I am still in Fairy Tail," Yarrow kicked at her brother since her arms were trapped by Natsu. "Shark met them a few times when we were in the area for other missions. I wouldn't just pass up the chance to make some big money at the hospital."

"I liked that kid," Shark declared. "He was such a butthead to Yarrow."

"Kind of like how you are," Yarrow glared at him. She didn't realize how Natsu slowly loosened his grip on her.

Shark went on to talk about specific times that Yarrow had come into the guild or the house with flowers. Yarrow turned to Natsu, "Don't worry, Shark likes you too."

"That's not it," Natsu whispered hotly. Yarrow leaned back into the fire mage. He tightened his grip around her again in response. Yarrow smiled.

"Why don't we tell them about the mission we did when we first got out nickname," Yarrow suggested to Shark.

Shark was more than exciting to share that story. They had been on a mission to eradicate a pack of wolves that was killing off livestock and injuring people. They both ended up coating themselves with bone in the middle of the town. They then grew their horns later as the wolves attacked their heads. Shark loved telling that story, and he didn't exaggerate it much.

"I still need to answer your question, are we still meeting tonight?" Yarrow asked the rose haired mage. She felt him chuckle and he his arms resumed the tight grip around her.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world."

* * *

Till next time,

Amber


	16. Broken Insomnia

I'm sorry for the few mistakes. I read these things so much for editing, I guess I miss a few things. I'll try and be more careful from here on out. Nothing is more distracting to me when I am reading when there is some sort of writing mistake. :) Here I thought that nobody would want to read my story because it had an OC in it.

* * *

**PART SIXTEEN: BROKEN INSOMNIA **

The group stayed at the picnic table telling stories of their adventures for a while longer. Erza painted intricate pictures of when she went on S-class missions by herself in her solo years. Lucy told stories of her experiences at her father's mansion. Natsu enthused about different, exotic places to try food. Juvia was hesitant to tell of her works with Phantom Lord, but told of a few stories she did with the other Element 4. Shark and Yarrow tried to make up for the lost time by trying to tell them of every job they had done. The sky got darker and the stars peaked out from behind the thinning clouds. Everyone agreed to walk back to the spa together.

When they got back to the spa, the receptionist was closing down the entrance for the hot springs. She informed the eight mages that most all of the town would be open tomorrow and gave each of them a list of things that would be open. The nurse at the hospital wasn't kidding that there were a lot of nightlife spots.

The mages made their way back to the rooms.

"I am so full!" Lucy stated, rubbing her stomach. Normally she wouldn't state something like that, but the all-you-can-eat meal was enough to make her tell everyone.

"I think that I am just going to fall right asleep," Erza declared as she opened the door.

"Goodnight!" Shark exclaimed as the door to the guys room was opened. Natsu met Yarrows eyes with a smirk on his face. Yarrow returned the gesture with a warm-hearted smile. He was telling her not to forget about their meeting.

They all went into their respective rooms. Yarrow waited until Erza, Lucy and Lisanna got to their beds. She changed and then pretended to look in the fridge so she could be close to the door to make an escape if she needed to.

Her signal came when she heard a bang in the hallway followed by fast moving footsteps. There was another bang when two more people came running into the hallway. Shark yelled after the first person in a slightly insane tone, "Get back here, Natsu!"

Yarrow didn't really think, she reacted by running towards the door, "See you all later!" She swung the door open and saw Shark and Gajeel in the hallway, their backs to her, watching the fire mage run at impossible speeds away from them.

They both turned to look at her, startled to have someone appear behind them. Erza was in the room yelling for Yarrow to stop and come back into the room. She heard footsteps in the girls room, egging her on to run, knowing that Erza was swiftly coming to the door. She reacted before the boys in the hallway could. She turned on her heel and bolted in the opposite direction that Natsu did.

"Shit, what do we do?" Shark asked. He was told by Erza to keep Natsu in the room that night again. Erza waddled out of the girl's room in her pajamas. She was far too stuffed to follow the two Dragon Slayers.

"I guess we will see them again soon enough," She sighed. She let go of any other ideas that she would be able to torture the bone mage with embarrassing her in front of Natsu. Since her plan didn't turn out the way she wanted, she would settle with the idea that she would just beat her up or tell embarrassing stories.

Mirajane tiredly walked into the hallway and offered kind words to Erza, assuring her that they all wanted to see her haze the bone mage. She then turned to Shark with a smile on her face, "You better not hurt my baby sister or I will make you pay."

Shark pushed past Gajeel into the boy's room, terrified of the S-class mages.

* * *

Yarrow knew that the other mages were far too tired and full to chase after both her and Natsu. Natsu was notorious for being full of energy, especially when he has had a lot of food. Yarrow crossed her fingers that they would think that she was just as energetic as he was tonight.

She got into the lobby and slowed down. The receptionist looked up at her, weary of why she ran into the lobby like a bat out of hell. Yarrow smiled at her and walked out of the lobby to the front of the spa.

She half walked, half ran to the back patio of the spa. She was happy to see the rosy haired mage was already standing there. He looked like he was catching his breath. He heard her and looked up with his signature grin on his face.

"I don't think that they will chase us," Yarrow said as she closed the distance between the two.

"I still don't want to chance it," Natsu said. "Knowing Erza, she won't take fondly to us running from her."

They both wordlessly agreed to go to the field that they went to the other night.

When they arrived, Natsu dried a patch of grass in the field from the rainstorm by puffing a little fire at the ground. The method worked surprisingly well. He sat down right in the middle of the dried area. Yarrow slowly sat down next to him.

"So," Yarrow started. She wasn't quite sure where to go from there.

Natsu seemed to feel the same, "The café was something huh? Nothing beats a celebration like that!"

"Defiantly, the hostess was so terrified that we were going to destroy everything," Yarrow laughed.

"I thought that she just didn't like us because she kicked us out," Natsu did his adorable boyish grin and scratched his head.

Yarrow made sure that she looked away from him to hide her blush, "I didn't mind chatting outside for a while."

Natsu suddenly scooted closer to her and his arm found its previous perch from when they were outside of the café. Yarrow blushed a deeper shade at his advance, but didn't put up any resistance to the gesture. He took this as an invitation to do more so he scooted around her and put his legs on either side of her. He placed both arms around her torso and rested his head back on her shoulder from earlier.

"You never answered your truth," Natsu took a liking to purring in her ear. He was genuinely curious about what eyeballing meant and why it was so important that she was eyeballing him. He had a feeling what it meant, but wanted her to clarify. Just to hear her say it would be worth it.

Yarrow was once again distracted by the closeness and was unable to think of an answer for his request.

"You're not going to break the rules, are you?" He cooed into her ear. The vibrations from his voice seemed to shake her very soul. His taunt gave her a sudden surge of courage.

She turned around to face him, earning herself a shocked look from the rose haired boy. He tilted his head curiously at her. She was sure now that her feelings were requited with the fire mage. "This is what eyeballing means I want to do this," She said as she leaned forward, closed her eyes and placed her lips softly against his.

There was a moment when Natsu looked at her in shock, but then he slowly pushed back against her lips with his own, pulling her closer to him.

Yarrow slightly opened her eyes when he returned the gesture. She saw that he was, in fact, enjoying himself. She readjusted her body so she wasn't twisted in his arms. She gained more confidence and pushed Natsu back, making them lay down in the grass. His tongue slid lightly across her bottom lip, asking for permission to enter.

Yarrow obliged and slowly parted her lips. Natsu sprang into action, he grabbed her sides and rolled them over so now he was to one trapping her on the ground. They broke apart for a moment to catch their breath.

"I like that you eyeball me," Natsu purred into her lips. Once again, his hot breath sent a shiver down her spine.

"Well, now I can do more than just eyeball you," Yarrow said. She ran her fingers softly around his shoulders to demonstrate what she meant. With one hand, she softly separated his scarf from his vest and slid her fingers up to the back of his neck where she did lightly traced little figure eights. She brought her other hand and traced the contours of his very muscular chest and abs. Natsu seemed to freeze at this motions for a moment before he hungrily reconnected their lips.

He let her statement apply to him as well as he slowly ran his hands up and down her sides and to her hips. Yarrow tangled one of her hands in his soft, messy hair, pulling him closer to her. Natsu reacted by lightly biting her bottom lip with his teeth, earning himself a shallow gasp from the bone mage.

Her unconscious sound drove him with more hunger as his hands got more daring in their movements, inching closer to Yarrows chest. Before his hands could move further, Yarrow parted from the kiss and smirked devilishly at him.

She managed to roll them back over so that she was laying on top of him once again. She threw her leg over his torso so she was hovering over him and pinned his arms with her hands on either side of him. Their faces were less than an inch away from each other.

"Why haven't we been doing this more?" Natsu's purr evolved into a soft growl. He leaning up and lightly nipped at Yarrows neck, right below her collar. He freed his hands and resumed his exploration up Yarrows back and down her side. Yarrow got goose bumps as his hands moved under her shirt and up her stomach. She knew where he was slowly headed.

Yarrow suddenly caught his wrist with her hand. Natsu instantly snapped his face away from her neck to look at her, wanting to know if he had done wrong.

"Let's not get too ahead of ourselves now," Yarrow smiled as she planted a kiss on his lips. She just wanted to lay all her cards on the table to let him know how far she was willing to go. He compliantly nodded, not wanting to make her uncomfortable and he didn't seem to mind as he resumed their previous actions. They both were having far too much fun to stop there.

What seemed like an eternity later, Natsu let his disappointment show when she rolled off of him and settled beside him. He still had an arm around her as she lay next to him. It only took a moment for the disappointed look to be replaced by his normal sportive grin.

"We will do that again right?" Natsu asked with a slight whine in his voice. Yarrow was struggling to catch her breath and steady her heartbeat. She never thought that he was that good of a kisser.

Instead of a direct response to his question, she simply breathed, "Wow."

Natsu laughed and pulled her close with his hand. Yarrow gave in to his pulling and turned on her side so she could lay her head in the indention between his very muscular arm and his chest.

She was smiling a million dollar smile as she started to play with the end of his scarf with her free hand.

After a few moments of them laying there, Natsu broke the silence.

"Man, I am tired! Who knew that kissing was so exhausting?" he said which he followed with a yawn. He was defiantly having fun with the new turn of events.

"Me too," Yarrow caught the contagious yawning bug from him and let out a small one escape. She was glad for the yawn or else she would have been blushing like a mad fool for his comment about her wearing him out.

"Do you think that we should head back? Erza will probably beat us for running away," Natsu asked, looking at the sky. Yarrow didn't want to hear anything about Erza in her euphoria.

"No, I am fine with staying right here for a while," Yarrow said and shifted her head to look at the stars. Natsu had a feeling that she would say that. He tightened his arm around her and placed a kiss on her forehead.

* * *

"You two are worrying a lot of people," Yarrow slowly batted her eyes open. She had no idea what time it was, it was really bright and she couldn't register what was going on. She slowly looked around. She was cuddled up to Natsu, who was still very much asleep. She smiled at the memory of the kiss they shared the night before and closed her eyes again and attempted to continue with her slumber.

A figure stepped between her and the high sun, casting a shadow over her face. She opened her eyes to see what it was. Gajeel slowly came into focus in the bright light.

"You are lucky that we found you first, just imagine what Erza would have done," Gajeel continued. Natsu startled awake at the mention of the terrifying knight mage, looking around trying to find the source of the intruder.

"What?" Yarrow muttered, her brain not quite comprehending what was going on around her in her sleepy state.

"We all are looking for you two, silly," a chipper voice called out. Levi stepped to stand next to Gajeel.

"Five more minutes," Yarrow gave up trying to figure out what was going on and rested her head back down on Natsu's bicep, pulling his scarf closer to her face to fend off the sun.

"Go away," Natsu growled to the two mages. He rested his head back on the ground and attempted to return to his sleep. He tightened his arm around the slumbering bone mage and buried his chin in her hair.

"Not so fast you two!" Gajeel reached down and grabbed Natsu by his scarf and pulled him up. Yarrow vocalized her disapproval of him taking her pillow away. Levi pulled Yarrows arm to try to wake her up as well. "We need to get you two back to the spa."

"Why," Yarrow whined as she was making it as difficult as possible for Levi to coax her into an upright position. Her sleepy state was slowly fading as the bluenette failed to get her to stand up.

"Put me down, metal head!" Natsu growled, outraged at the Iron Dragon Slayer. He was now fully awake, and more than willing to duke it out with Gajeel. Gajeel dropped him onto the ground.

"Why is everybody looking for us?" Yarrow yawned. Yarrow finally processed what was going on. She still wasn't going to make it any easier for the script mage to get her on her feet. She was rather enjoying frustrating the little bluenette.

"Some of the girls want to know what everybody is doing today. They said something about going out tonight because there are so many tourists in town," Gajeel started walking, sure that the two would follow.

"What if we don't want to do anything with everyone else?" Natsu smirked from his position on the ground. He looked at Yarrow, wanting to spend the day with only her. She was laughing because she would allow Levi to get her to a standing position and then she would fall to the ground within moments. She was obviously doing it on purpose to annoy Levi.

"I will personally deliver you to Erza," Gajeel glared at the fire mage.

Yarrow laughed as Levi finally gave up. Yarrow stood up on her own accord. Levi resisted the urge to yell at her, "So all I had to do was stop trying to make you stand up?"

Yarrow nodded to the bluenette. She walked over to the Fire Dragon Slayer.

"Come on Natsu, who knows. We might do something fun with the group," She was now helping him to his feet.

He got to his feet, he silently agreed with a childish pout on his face. Yarrow and Natsu started to tail behind Gajeel and Levi. Natsu surprised Yarrow by snaking his hand into hers. Yarrow blushed and slightly tightened her fingers around his. She snuck a peek at him, he was looking away from her, trying to hide the slight color that crept its way to his cheeks, "Good morning to you too."

* * *

Tell me what you think!

Till next time,

Amber


	17. What We Do Tonight

I am sorry to say that I am probably going to slow down on posting this story. I don't want to catch up to the chapter where I am writing. I like to edit a lot and not be rushed when I have to write. I am thinking posting ever Wednesday for now. If I pick back up on writing like the wind, I will post more :)  
BUT! There is good news. I am thinking (and working on) a bunch of specials with Yarrow and Shark in them. Like a story about how Shark found out that Yarrow was the Bone Dragon Slayer, stories about the two growing up, how they came to grow up together and other such stuff.

* * *

**PART SEVENTEEN: WHAT WE DO TONIGHT **

Gajeel lead Levi, Natsu and Yarrow to the back patio of the spa. They saw that there were a lot of tourists packed into the lobby waiting to get into their rooms. The news that the monster was defeated traveled quickly.

On the patio of the spa, there were a few families or couples taking pictures as they were excited for their adventure in the tourist town that was no longer threatened by a monster.

When Yarrow and Natsu saw Erza in her knight armor, they stopped in their tracks and both turned to run away. It was guaranteed that the redhead was going to deal out punishment to the two.

"Where do you think you are going?" Gajeel asked, picking Yarrow up by the scruff of her shirt. Gray and Shark teamed up to stop the escape attempt from Natsu.

Yarrow looked up at the Iron Dragon Slayer innocently, she would try, "I need to go to the bathroom?"

"Nice try, Squirt. Just come over and sit," Gajeel made it sound like it was going to be a pleasant experience. Yarrow knew better.

"Let me GO!" Natsu was being dragged back to them by the victorious Shark and Gray. Those two got along far too well. They both looked a lot alike and they both had a confusing habit of taking their clothes off. Natsu sat at their feet with the two mages looming over him.

Before either Yarrow or Natsu could make another attempt to escape, Erza was maliciously hovering over both of them.

"If you two do that again, I will hunt you down," Erzas eyes spelled out murder.

Both of the trapped Dragon Slayers nod their head, thanking their lucky stars that the knight mage wasn't going to physically harm them.

"Well, on a happier note. Master Makarov said that we should enjoy the nightlife because we managed not to destroy anything on the mission," her personality change surprised everyone. "We are not the only tourists in the town. I have narrowed the list of nightlife locations down to these."

She holds up a list. It had over thirty locations listed.

Levi looks at the list for a moment without reading it. She then declares, "Let's go to a club!" She was excited at the thought of being close to Gajeel all night.

A few of the other mages present were all silently agreeing. Yarrow was hoping that Erza would agree to go to one. She wasn't a fan of bars. Yarrow wouldn't mind showing off a little as well with her dancing.

Erza looked at all of the mages, everyone wanted to go. She sighed, "I'll allow it. But on one condition." Everyone waited to see what Erza would say, "We go shopping."

"You are on your own!" Gajeel said and starts to inch away. He did not want to be dragged on a shopping trip with all of the girls of their group. He was quickly followed by Pantherlilly, Shark and Elfman.

"That's fine, I just need new clothes," Erza said. "I just want a companion!" The boys all exhaled in unison. They just dodged a bullet.

"No man likes shopping!" Elfman declares as he sighs in relief.

All of the girls looked at each other. They were all excited to go shopping, Lucy stated her excitement and jumped up to lead Erza back to the room to get money.

"Yeah, I am not going shopping with you girls," Gray walked back to his room. Most of the other guys followed his lead.

"Come on, Yarrow!" Wendy pulled Yarrow along behind her. She looked back at the boys, Happy blocked her view because he was flying their way.

"I will go with you!" the blue exceed was yelling. He slowed down when he reached Yarrow, Wendy and Carla.

The girls and Happy all wondered around the crowding town to find a store that would sell clothes that would fit their needs.

* * *

"I saw that shirt first!" Erza exclaimed as she chased Evergreen through a small store. It specialized in clothes for clubbing. It was the place all of the tourists went when they came to the town without proper attire.

"Then maybe you should be quicker at grabbing it!" Evergreen slipped away from Erza. Erza continued to chase her through the store.

Lisanna looked at a really strappy article of clothing. She was pulling it in all sorts of directions, "How do you even put this on?"

Yarrow was slowly making her way through the racks of shirts. Wendy was on her tail. Happy would occasionally come by presenting a shirt or a random piece of clothing to the two. He was holding up a really short, bedazzled orange tank top in front of Yarrow.

"Sorry, Happy. That isn't my style," Yarrow said patting him on the head. Cana noticed and asked Happy to hand it to her.

Levi made her way over to the bone mage, "So you looked happy this morning, what did you and Natsu do all night?"

Yarrow nearly dropped her pile of clothes that she was planning on trying on. Levi's comment took her off guard. She instantly turned a dark shade of red.

"I think Yarrow has a boyfriend!" Cana said loudly as she puts the shirt on over her normal top.

Yarrow still had her head to come up with a good comeback, "Why don't you tell us what you and Gajeel were doing all alone after you kissed him?"

Erza successfully caught Evergreen and claimed her trophy of the shirt. She walked over to the clothes rack that they were standing near.

"Levi can have her privacy," Erza stated, flipping through the shirts on the rack.

Yarrow nearly dropped her clothes once again due to shock, "And I can't?"

"You should have seen it Erza. They were clinging to each other in their sleep when Gajeel and I showed up," Levi clasped her hands together.

"That's not how it was!" Yarrow was trying to defend herself. When the girls waited for what it actually was, Yarrow just looked at the clothes she picked out.

"They must have done something!" Lucy exclaimed with an evil gleam in her eyes.

"I agree," Loke said next to his master.

Lucy screeched, "When did you get here?"

"I couldn't resist coming out to a bunch of fine ladies trying on revealing clothing!" Loke winked at the blonde. "But who knew Natsu would catch a looker?"

"Don't flirt with her!" Lucy smacked him. "As your punishment, you need to help me find something to wear!" Lucy turned and dragged her celestial spirit behind her.

"It was beautiful, Erza!" Levi continued. "When we got there, we woke them up. The thing is, they kept on trying to go back to sleep. So much for Yarrow's insomnia!"

"I really don't know why you all are so interested," Yarrow decided that she would try to not care what the other female mages said. She wouldn't spill anything about what happened that night. The way Natsus breath made her shiver and how warm he was through the night. The way his mouth felt on hers and his curious hands running all over her. Yarrow continued to think about the previous night, making a dull blush appear her face.

"They all are just excited that you are old enough to join us," Wendy snapped Yarrow out of her thoughts. Wendy pulled out a shirt with white feathers on in. She made a weird face at it and put it back on the rack.

"How about this one Yarrow?" Happy flew to her with a fiery red shirt with a black stamped plaid pattern on it.

Yarrow looked at the tank top for a moment, "I actually like that one."

Happy dropped it on her pile as he flew off somewhere else. Carla was staying close to Wendy, making sure that she didn't pick up anything that was too revealing. Carla was really like Wendy's mother.

"Why don't you just tell me what happened?" Wendy whispered to her fellow Dragon Slayer.

"You too?!" She nearly dropped all of her clothes once again.

Wendy laughed, "I was kidding!"

"That was a cruel joke, Wendy," Yarrow muttered. She was about to walk to the dressing room. She really liked the red shirt that Happy found for her, all she had to do was find bottoms that went with it.

"How about this one!" Happy exclaimed as she turned around. He was holding up a frilly skirt that looked the color of pink that baby would puke out. Yarrow shook her head, trying not to offend the exceed. He was trying to help her. He had a horrible sense for fashion.

Mirajane walked up to Yarrow, holding a variety of clothing articles in her hands, "What are you wearing?" She had her normal smile on her face.

Yarrow held up the red shirt and a short black dress to signify that she had narrowed it down. She had put everything else back. Mirajane took the black dress away from her and handed her another black article from her pile then walked away humming a song.

"That is her way of helping you," Lisanna called across the store, seeing Yarrow's confused look. "She might not be good at art, but she knows how to dress."

Yarrow looked at the article of clothing that Mirajane had swapped with her. It was perfect for her outfit. Black leather pants was exactly what the shirt would look great with.

"Thanks Mira!" Yarrow couldn't help but yell her thanks to the transformation mage.

Lucy walked out of the dressing room as Yarrow got there. Lucy was wearing something that obviously was picked out by the Leo celestial spirit, Lucy donned a green tube top under a long sleeved fishnet shirt and some hot pants. It wasn't something that Lucy would normally wear. For some reason, she liked the outfit anyway.

Happy flew over to Carla. He was holding a small purple piece of clothing for the female exceed. Carla looked at him, and then at the fabric he was holding. She took it from him, "This is only because I like purple, understood?"

All of the mages picked out their outfits and made their way back to the spa. They had to fight their way through the lobby because of all of the people there that was checking into the spa. There was a large sign over the entrances to the hot springs that said that it was going to be closed the remainder of today and all day tomorrow due to maintenance. Yarrow has a suspicion that something about the boys being left unattended was the reason for the closure.

"Those boys are far too reckless," Lucy said. She knew that it was probably them as well. Erza seemed to be more occupied getting though the lobby to the hallway without dropping her bags to notice.

* * *

Erza was the first one to be finished getting ready. She promptly walked out of the room. She earned a lot of yells from the half-dressed women in the room as she left the door wide open. Lucy ran to slam the door shut before anyone in the hallway could see them.

A moment after the yells from the women died down, there was loud bang as the door was slammed open to the boys room. In that room, she was met with yells from them as well. Apparently, they weren't dressed either because they yelled at her to close the door and to turn away.

Wendy was brushing the sky mages hair into a high ponytail. Most of the other girls were half dressed and helping one another with makeup and hair. Some of them where helping put on other clothes.

Erza loudly stated what club they were going to was based off of popularity in the town. All of the girls heard this and nodded, happy to be going out for the night. The guys seemed to be quiet. Erza then said that they would all be ready to go to the club in twenty minutes. There was a collective shriek from all of the girls. Yarrow nearly pulled some of Wendy's hair out and someone ripped a shirt. That wasn't enough time for all of the girls to get ready.

There was another yell from some of the guys as Erza entered the hallway and shut the door. When Erza got back into the girls room, everyone was in chaos. Yarrow quickly finished Wendys hair. Cana was jumping up and down to get her tight pants on. Lisanna was frantically picking out her eye shadow color. Evergreen was hurrying to decide on what shirt she was going to wear with her black skirt so she knew how to do her hair.

There were lots of girls fighting for the mirror in the bathroom. Mirajane was still in the shower, steaming up the mirror and making it hard to work with the fogged piece of glass.

Erza was confused by all of the chaos. Yarrow apologized to Wendy about pulling her hair in her panic. Wendy assured her that the final look of her hair was well worth the pain.

Yarrow put on her pants and her red high heels. She made sure that her collar was still in place as she put on makeup in a frenzy.

All of the girls seemed to finish getting ready at the same time. Mira used her transformation magic to get ready in a single moment. Yarrow muttered something about that being cheating.

The girls looked to one another. They were about to tear the town.

* * *

I have always wanted to write a chapter where people are dancing. I don't know how well it will work out, but I have fun writing it. I have a lot of fun writing, period but I have extra fun when I make my characters do something fun too.

Till next time,

Amber


	18. Join the Club

I know I have ventured a little far from fighting and action. But I like writing it, and there will be plenty more of everything later in this story. Well, get your dancing shoes on.

* * *

**PART EIGHTEEN: JOIN THE CLUB**

The men of Fairy Tail waited for the girls to finish getting ready in the lobby. Erza had told them that the women would be ready in twenty minutes, and that was about an hour ago. So, in their waiting, they took over the entire lobby. The mages sprawled out and covered all of the furniture. They wanted to make it clear that they were obviously bored with waiting.

Loke appeared in the lobby sometime in the waiting time, making his rounds to talk with everyone. He would even try to flirt with some of the women that were leaving the hotel for a night on the town.

Shark and Gray got into an argument because, by some coincidence, they ended up wearing the exact same outfit. Gray was telling Shark that he wasn't allowed to look like or act like him anymore. The air around the two of them was tense, giving off the vibe that a fight would soon break out. After a few moments of glaring, the two of them both had a realization; the two of them looking alike would make for some awesome situations with confusing people at the club. They could pretend to be twins and wreak havoc. They high fived each other and began scheming.

The crowd was gone from the lobby from earlier in the day. Most of the tourists were out in the city or had turned in for the night.

The girls slowly started to trickle into the lobby. Lucy tailed behind Erza. They were the first two to come into the lobby.

"Loke?!" Lucy exclaimed as she entered the lobby. "What are you doing here?"

The Leo spirit held up his hands defensively as his master approached him, "I am here out of my own power again and you need a date, my love!" Whatever conversation that Lucy and Loke had that followed his declaration, it was hidden under their hushed voices in a secluded corner of the lobby. Lucy still didn't look happy that he was there.

Yarrow was one of the last ones to come into the lobby. She was helping Wendy more than she was herself. When she entered, she automatically searched for the pink head of hair in the lobby, she wanted to see his face when he saw her.

She spotted him. He was in a conversation with Gajeel and had his back to her. Yarrow was impressed on how the fire mage could clean up. He was wearing a long jacket with both sleeves. The top of the jacket looked very nice, almost like it could pass as being semiformal. A part of her was disappointed to see that he wasn't sporting his usual revealing vest.

Gajeel averts his attention from Natsu to the hallway entrance. All of the women were now there, Gajeel must have noticed Levi. The distraction of Gajeel made Natsu turn to see what he was looking at.

Like a magnet, his eyes snapped right to Yarrow. His face lit up when he registered what he saw. He quickly abandoned his fellow Dragon Slayer to walk up to her.

"I like your outfit," Natsu smiled when he got close enough to be heard by Yarrow. He grinned when he noticed that the collar was still in its rightful place.

"I had a lot of help from Happy," Yarrow laughed tugging at her shirt. She had a feeling that Natsu had told Happy to accompany her to monitor and some-what dictate what she was going to wear, "Did he do a good job following your directions?"

"I don't know what you mean," He looked at her innocently, the tell-tale sign that he was in denial. His hand automatically went to the back of his head and averted his eyes from her. There was a slight trace of color on his cheeks.

"He threw anything that vaguely looked like fire at me, lots of red and orange and weird pink things. I can see right through you and your wingman," Yarrow began to walk towards the door to tail after the other mages. As she passed the adorable fire mage, she flipped her hair towards him.

Natsu knew that he had been caught, but he had a feeling that Yarrow wouldn't mind, "I have no idea what you are talking about, you're weird."

Yarrow laughed and rolled her eyes at the rose haired boy. He was slowly tailing her out of the lobby. Once they got outside, he strode up next to her and chatted with her the duration of the walk.

The group made their way to the club that Erza indicated was the most popular one in town. It was in a gigantic warehouse looking building just outside the city. Yarrow could tell why the club was separated from the city; she could clearly hear the music playing from the speakers even though they were still about three blocks away.

Erza made quick work of the bouncer. He was convinced that the group was suspicious because of their status as powerful and destructive mages. The bouncer had every right to think that.

The bouncer pleaded with all of them to not use any magic inside the club. He was responsible for all of the damages that the people he let in caused. If only he knew who he was talking to. There is no "restraint" when it comes to Fairy Tail mages.

They entered the club and there was a small buffer around the door of empty space where there were no dancing people. The dance floor sprouted up out of the floor and was filled to the edges with people moving to the beat of the loud music.

Levi got a playful look and grabbed Gajeels hand. She pulled him and headed right for the middle of the sea of moving people.

"Wait, Levi, I don't know how to dance! I don't like these things!" The iron mage had an unusual tone of panic in his voice as the bluenette dragged him deeper into the blur of dancing people. He was looking back at the group of Fairy Tail mages, desperate to be saved by one of them.

"I think that he loves the attention. Don't you remember 'shoo-bee-do-ba'?" Mirajane fluidly laughed as she grabbed Wendy's hand. She took it upon herself to dance with the youngest member of the group. Erza joined Mira and the small Dragon Slayer. There were a lot of shady people in these facilities that didn't need to be dancing with the young girl.

A new beat took over the building and Shark yelled out in excitement. Yarrow took a moment to recognize what he was so excited about. She shook her head, knowing what was coming. She couldn't help laugh at her brother when the "Gangnam Style" blasted through the speakers. Everyone in the club cracked a smile at the ridiculous, but inhumanly catchy song.

Shark and a few other people in the area started to do the dance for it right off the first note of the song. Natsu and Gray looked at the people doing it and wordlessly made a competition of it. They ran up to where Shark was and demanded he teach them how to do it. Determine to learn the dance before the end of the song.

Yarrow ventured closer to the boys. Shark did the motions of PSY when he is losing control over the girls doing yoga and mouthed the words "Hey Sexy Lady!" towards Yarrow when she got close. She put her hand on his face and pushed him and made him lose his balance. She started to do the dance when the beat indicated while her brother was still stumbling.

The rest of the song, she was holding her urges to laugh at the other mages. Loke, Lisanna, Juvia and Lucy all joined their circle and were doing the dance by the end of the song. Natsu was really into the dance, which made it even more entertaining. Even Happy and Carla were dancing enthusiastically.

The song ended and was replaced by another song with heavy bass that Yarrow hadn't heard before. She changed her dance to just move with the beat.

Shark was a surprisingly good dancer when it came to clubs. He eased his way into the center of attention of the people around him. Natsu and Gray were watching him, intent on getting the attention of onlookers as well.

Natsu tried to mimic Sharks moves, but soon failed. He was getting some hackling from some of the onlookers. He stopped to let Shark have the circle once again.

The slow beginnings of a dubstep song blasted through the speakers. There was a low tremble in the club as bass started to be formed into music. Yarrow smiled as she recognized it. It was one of her favorite, Blackout by Vaski.

She quickly moved into the circle which Shark moved out of when he saw her intent on dancing. Shark knew that she loved to dance to the high energy songs of dubstep. He willingly let her take the spotlight from him. She grabbed Natsus wrist as she past him and made sure that he was at the edge of the circle. She was going to dance with him at some point of the song and make sure that he redeemed himself from his earlier cackling. She didn't want to scare him off in the first notes of the song.

In the middle of the circle, Yarrow fixated on Natsu as the beat increased in tempo. She was going to make sure that he stayed right there so she could drag him into the circle before the song was over.

The first bass drop came right as Yarrow began to move her body faster. Natsu looked surprised at the sudden movements. She began to move her body along with the beat. She knew the song so her movements matched perfectly to the trembling sounds coming from the speakers.

Natsu tried to mimic her movements from the side of the circle, but slowly fell into the same hypnosis that the other onlookers were in watching her.

Yarrow saw that Natsu had stopped attempting to dance. A coltish smirk played on her lips as she moved closer to Natsu. She was dancing so close to him now, encouraging him to dance with her as they faced each other. He slightly obliged as he tried to follow her movements. She waited for an opportune beat in the song to turn around and backed up to be grinding on her dance partner. She continued dancing, urging him to follow her.

She could feel that he was still hesitant and wasn't moving with her. She turned around and taunted him, "What wrong? Can't keep up?"

The taunt hit Natsu the right way so he got a confident smirk on his face. Yarrow made sure that he had enough time to getting used to being this close to her before she planned her next move. The music was leading up to another drop in the bass. She gave Natsu a flirtatious wink and dropped to the floor with the music. While she was still facing him, she slithered up the front of him.

Natsu took on her provocation and continued in his confident movements. The rest of the onlookers dropped from his view, the only thing that mattered to him was impressing the light haired girl that was dancing with him, or rather _on_ him.

His change of focus immediately paid off as the two of them began to dance together, gaining more spectators. Even Shark stopped his advanced dance moves to observe them.

The two were moving in completely independent ways, but the terpsichorean movements complemented the other.

The song ended and Yarrow turned to find Natsu's eyes with hers. The onlookers dispersed and filled in the circle as the next song filled the room. Yarrow was slightly out of breath. She loved giving her all in the dubstep songs. She enjoyed the impressed look on Natsu's face just as much.

The rest of the night, Yarrow would drag Natsu to the middle of the crowd whenever there was a high energy song and she tested him to see if he could keep up with her varying dance moves. For the most part, he could just barely keep up with her, but that didn't seem to faze his enthusiasm for dancing with her.

Shark would jump in and teach Natsu and Gray a dance move or two whenever a dubstep song wasn't playing. He taught them the stanky leg, which Yarrow nearly died laughing from seeing, and he also taught all of the Fairy Tail mages how to jerk when the respective song played.

Natsu always stayed close to Yarrow, always ready to be her partner to songs that she would dance with him came on. He slowly began to notice things about the songs that she danced faster to and the ones that she generally enjoyed more. Mostly, the distinguishable tremble from the low notes and a repetition of the beats that would sometimes stray from normal would be the songs that she enjoyed the most with him.

By the end of the night, they stayed dancing with each other even if it wasn't a song that they were making effort to dance to. The two were practically glued to one another.

All of the mages from Fairy Tail were dancing and having fun. Gajeel and Levi were still nowhere to be seen. Lucy and Loke would periodically disappear from view, but they would turn back up soon after.

Before any of them knew it, the lights turned on and the music stopped. There was a dull humming noise stuck in Yarrows ears from being on the dance floor for far too long. She knew that all of the members of the group had a similar sensation. She loved the deafening effect that loud music had on her.

The group congregated outside the doors to wait for all of their numbers to exit the building. They wanted to walk back to the hotel together to be sure that nobody wa left behind.

Now that all of them were out in the open, there was a silent happiness that clouding around all of them. Cana had consumed a lot of alcohol after making friends with some other club-goers. Mirajane slung her over her shoulder and was dragging her. Cana was loudly exclaiming lyrics that had caught her attention in the club.

Natsu and Yarrow, now exposed to the silence and the watchful eyes of the other mages in the guild, were hesitant to be as physical with each other as they were on the dance floor. They were accustomed to being close to each other now. Yarrow felt a little disheartened as she was always wanting to reach out to him and pull Natsu closer to her.

The whole walk back, she would steal glances at the fire mage, who would return the gesture. They had slight smiles permanently on their mouths the whole time. Yarrow had a feeling that he wanted to be close to her as badly as she wanted to be close to him again.

Levi was still really hyper from the dancing, "I had no idea that the dancing would change this much in seven years!"

Lisanna joined in the enthusiastic conversation, "I know, right! Who knew that two people could be that close to one another in public?"

Natsu inched closer to Yarrow. He leaned over her shoulder and echoed, "Yeah, who knew?"

Before Yarrow could seductively respond to him, they entered the spa. Shark was enthused to show more dance moves to the mages that were interested in learning more moves in the lobby.

Erza saw that Natsu and Yarrow were very close to each other and inserted herself between the two. Erza made small talk with Natsu to distract him. Lisanna and Lucy silently slid behind Yarrow and ambushed her by grabbing her. Yarrow tried to struggle as the two older mages dragged her down the hall where the rooms were.

"Erza told us that we need to keep you in the room tonight," Lucy had a menacing aura that mimicked the knight mages'. Lucy was enjoying dragging Yarrow away.

Natsu watched as the blonde and the silver haired girl dragged the bone mage down the hallway.

Erza grabbed Natsu's face and made him look at her, pinching his cheeks together around his lips. He looked genuinely surprised at the intimidating mage.

"You and I are going to have a talk," Erza's eyes spelled out murder, but her tone was surprisingly light. Natsu weakly nodded his head, terrified of what the two of them would talk about.

* * *

Most of the time that I was writing this I felt exactly like that internet meme with the dog at the science table, saying "I have no idea what I am doing." Mostly because I can do something that can barely pass as "dancing." So writing it was awkward. I hope it didn't show too much. Even though I had no idea what I was doing, I was still having a lot of fun with it.

Till Wednesday,

Amber


	19. Mattress Mountain

I had a LOT of fun writing this chapter, I fell out of my chair once or twice because I was laughing so hard. I hope that you guys enjoy reading this chapter as much as I did writing and editing it.

Also, I posted another story to my account that is a collection of other stories that follow Yarrow and Shark over the years, this story won't be updated a lot, but I have a lot of other stories about them planned. It is called "Adventures of the Horned Devils and other stories." There are already two chapters posted to it, so please check it out!

* * *

**PART NINETEEN: MATTRESS MOUNTAIN**

Yarrow stirred in her sleep. She had a feeling that there was someone watching her. She rolled over in the hotel mattress and pulled the blanket over her shoulder. She remembered what happened after they all got back from the club last night.

She was dragged back to her bed by Lisanna and Lucy. Her memory got a little hazy as the night in the room progressed. She did recall a distinct moment when she when everything went black; she was hit very hard in the head by a particular red head when the knight mage entered the room an hour after her abduction.

More memories filled her head, details of what happened from the time that they were at the club to when she was knocked out by Erza. Lucy and Lisanna pleaded with Yarrow to tell them everything about the night out at the club and what had happened the night that both Yarrow and Natsu snuck past Erza, Shark and Gajeel.

Juvia and Evergreen joined in on pestering Yarrow to tell them everything about what happened.

Yarrow was not about to tell them about the recurring games of truth or dare with Natsu whenever they were together. She tried to deter the firing of questions to Levi. Levi was nowhere to be seen in the room and was reported that she wasn't in the lobby either. Lucy and Lisanna didn't much care where the petite script mage was at the moment, they were more concerned with Yarrow.

With no obvious out, Yarrow reluctantly told them a blurred version of the truth. She didn't tell them everything, but she did tell them that the two of them did meet up and train together some nights, and on other nights they just talked.

The wolves seemed to be satisfied with that hunk of meat. Lucy then started asking more specific questions about what Yarrow saw in Natsu and what she thought about the fire mage. Yarrow was beet red for the remainder of the night, unable to say anything aloud to the inquiring females. She didn't know how to quite put it into words quite yet.

The feeling of being watched never went away in Yarrow's sleepy state. She slowly opened her eyes. Her head hurt from where Erza hit her violently last night and was slightly throbbing. It took a moment for the sight that was before her to sink in to her.

She shrieked and sat up in the bed quickly, scooting back to make her back flush against the headboard. All of the other women that were awake were hovering over her bed, all of them were staring at her with curious eyes.

"I thought that you said that you couldn't sleep away from home?" Levi noted as she moved closer to peer at Yarrow. Yarrow wrinkled her nose slightly, there was something in the air that didn't sit well with her. It made her slightly nauseous.

"Well, I was violently knocked out last night, so I didn't really have a choice," Yarrow muttered, pushing the bluenette away from her. She realized that Levi was the source of the unsettling smell. She resisted the urge to comment on the smell, there was almost nothing that Yarrow hated more than to insult Levi. The script mage is just far too cute to insult.

Yarrow resorted to glaring at the remaining women hovering above her, "You all are very creepy. What the hell are all of you doing watching me sleep?"

Lucy snapped her attention away from the bone mage. She muttered a response to her, "You were talking in your sleep and we all wanted to know what you were saying."

There was a collective squeal from the women that were crowded around her. Lisanna piped in, "You were dreaming about Natsu!"

The color flushed out of Yarrow's face. She didn't know that she talked in her sleep. Let alone talking about the pink haired fire mage in her sleep. She gasped, what was she saying in her unconscious state?

Wendy realized her fear and whispered in her ear, "You only said his name a few times and then tightened your grip to the pillow."

Yarrow sighed. She pushed Levi in the face to get her away from her again. The bluenette was like a boomerang, she just kept coming back.

Juvia and Lisanna were both also too close for her comfort, but settled with glaring at the two of them. Yarrow moved to get out of bed.

Erza quickly blocked her path once her feet touched the ground.

Yarrow raised her eyebrow at the knight mage. The redhead knocked her out the previous night and was not on Yarrows good list. On top of that, the smell that was coming from Levi was stirring something very unpleasant in her, making her irritable. She didn't care how powerful Erza was, she was blocking her way. She growls out a threatening question, "Can I help you?"

Erzas stern expression softened at the growl from the Bone Dragon Slayer. Yarrow tilted her head to the side in an angry confusion. Erza smiled and exclaimed, "We are having a movie day!"

Yarrows eyebrows furrowed. She knew by now that there was some sort of ulterior motive that drove the knight mages actions. Her suspicion was confirmed as Erza continued, "Nobody is leaving this room all day, we are going to have bonding time."

Mirajane appeared beside Yarrow and held her little sister in a tight head lock. Lisanna was gasping for air, tugging at her older sisters arms. Mira was excited to keep her little sister in the room all day.

"What are we going to do about food?" Cana asked. There was no mini bar in the room and she was obviously more concerned about the lack of alcohol in the room. There was no other way to deal with the women all day long without alcohol.

"We are staying in this room," Erza said sternly. She began to move the beds around to make stadium seating around an area where she will put the movie lacrimas. "Nobody is leaving this room for any reason."

Yarrow yawned and disregarded Erza's proclamation, "I'm going to go get milk."

Erza smacked her upside the head then resumed her position to block her path, "I said nobody is leaving this room."

Yarrow snarled at the knight mage. She was not about to let Erza tell her what she could do. After her knocking her out the previous night, Yarrow was ready to break bones, "Are you trying to kill me?"

Mirajane put a sincere hand on Yarrows shoulder, releasing Lisanna from her grip. Yarrow's anger dissipated the moment the takeover mage touched her. Yarrow knitted her eyebrows together, wondering what could have made her act so hostile towards her friend. It was one thing to be angry with Erza, but an entirely new level of crazy to challenge her over something so petty.

Mira stated softly, "You can live without milk." Yarrow was still hesitant to trust the plan that the two s-class mages concocted. She looked suspiciously at the redhead. Erza nodded to someone behind Yarrow. Mirajane added, "Plus, Shark told me your favorite movie. We just so happened to have it and we are going to watch it first."

Yarrows eyes lit up. She had never watched her movie with anyone before. Shark always claimed that it was far too girly or childlike for him to watch it with her; Raki never watched movies with her; and Briska never was around for long enough to watch a movie. She decided that she was going to bide by the rules that Erza set. Yarrow began to believe that they only wanted to have more bonding time, with no other motive to the imprisonment.

Before Yarrow could say anything, Lucy came up from behind her. She secured her whip around Yarrows torso and fastened it around her many times before Yarrow could register what had happened.

It dawned on her as Erza and Lucy began to hover over her. Mira went to make sure that the pyramid of mattresses and couches was safe for her sister. Lisanna was waving her arms at the top of the pile, making the entire structure sway.

"I promise that I won't fight you anymore," Yarrow pleaded. She wriggled against the loosely tied whip that was acting as rope to restrain her. "I won't try to escape anymore!"

There was a knock on the door before Erza accepted that Yarrow wouldn't try to escape. Lisanna continued to wave her hands atop the pyramid, Cana was crawling up the side to attempt to stop the silver haired mage from her movement. Evergreen plopped down at the bottom of the structure, not caring what the monkeys were doing on other parts of the structure.

Levi casually walked to the door and opened it wide to show off the scene that was inside the door. Natsu began a friendly hello but then it trickled to speechlessness.

The look on Natsus face was priceless. Slowly, Shark and Happy's expression mimicked the fire mages. They saw Erza and Lucy hovering over the feebly restrained Yarrow. All of the other girls were sitting on or gathered around a dangerous pyramid of mattresses and couches. Lisanna was triumphantly waving her hands on top of the stadium seating. Lisanna gave a little shriek as the structure gave way, causing an avalanche of mattresses, pillows and girls to crash onto Mira and Evergreen.

When Yarrow saw Natsu at the door, her face lit up despite the obvious chaos that was breaking out in the women's room. The fire mage and the regeneration mage took Erza and Lucy by surprise. Yarrow seized the opportunity to wriggle out of the restraint and dart towards the door.

She surprised Erza at her escape. Erza began to charge after her, Yarrow reached the door and pushed Levi to the side. Making it look like she was making a break for it. Levi stumbled and was trying to stay upright. Yarrow ignored a curious smell that still emanated from the script mage.

Yarrow turned to look at the three boys who were beginning to wonder why they should be so surprised whenever they pass by the women's room, every time they came to the door, there was something weird going on inside.

Yarrow shoved her palm into Sharks face and pushed him further into the hallway. She turned to look at Natsu with stern look on her face, "There is no time to explain! I have everything handled here! I will defend the fort, you gather the forces and the armies to defend the name of Fairy Tail! ARAHH!"

Yarrow continued to yell a battle cry at the boys as she slammed the door in their faces. Yarrow heard Erza laugh, knowing that the fire mage will take her seriously. And that they had no idea what was going on.

"I'm okay!" Mira exclaimed from the bottom of the heap of fluff and girls. Lisanna sat atop the pile and was giggling so much that she was turning blue. Levi shook her head as she walked past Yarrow. The smell caught Yarrows nose once again. It was really going to bother her. It took all of her self control not to jump the tiny bluenette and sniff her to figure out what the smell was from.

Wendy slowly came over to Yarrow, she was rubbing her butt from when she landed on it falling off of the avalanche, "You smell it too, don't you?"

Yarrow looked at the young Dragon Slayer, she nodded, "Do you know what it is?"

"I don't know for sure, but she may just be getting close to Gajeel that his smell is rubbing off on her," Wendy muttered. Yarrows eyes widened, she knew that she smelled that scent before. It was just Levi and Gajeels smells mixing, cotton and blueberries with the mix of pine and raspberries. She looked down and smiled at the young Sky Dragon Slayer, the recognition of the smell was all that it took.

"We are going to watch Wall-E first!" Yarrow strut over to the heap of mattresses and began to reconstruct the stadium seating, she knew that the smell that Levi had would no longer bother her now that she knew what it was. She tested this as she sighed heavily while moving a queen sized mattress from the pile to put it on the new structure. She smelled Levi, but she wasn't as irritated by it as before.

Mira was uncovered by the reconstruction of the pyramid. Mirajane pretended that nothing had happened as she shuffled to get the lacrima that was going to play the animated movie. Yarrow was excited to watch one of her favorite movies with the other girls.

"Of course! What other movies are there for after the movie?" Levi chirped.

Erza listed off a bunch of romance themed movies. Evergreen sighed when she heard every single Nicholas Sparks movie listed in a row. She continued, "You know all of these movies will give us all unrealistic expectations of men."

"That isn't the point, we are bonding! What is better for bonding than a bunch of romance movies?" Lucy exclaimed as she climbed the reconstructed pyramid. This time it was made sturdier than the previous one. Lucy teamed up with Yarrow to make it sturdier. This was sure; there would not be another avalanche.

Though the mountain of mattresses and couch cushions were expertly placed, Lisanna was banned from going higher than the bottom tier from the avalanche that she had caused.

They watched all of Wall-E, everyone mimicking Wall-E and Eva when they said each other's names, making weird noises and then chasing each other around the room.

As the credits were rolling, they decided to tackle the stack of Nicholas Sparks movies. They put The Lucky One on top of the pile of lacrima and began to play it.

They weren't past the opening scene when there was a thunderous commotion from outside the door. Erza paused the movie to look at the door. All of the girls curiously looked towards the door from their perches on the mountain.

All at once, the door burst inward with a loud crack. Natsu, Shark, Gray and Happy burst into the room. They were covered with pots and pans held together loosely with string. They had a variety of utensils in their hands and were seeking out the enemy.

Natsu was yelling that nobody threatens Fairy Tail without consequence. Happy was behind him, wielding a tiny butter knife pretending to fence with the invisible enemies in the room.

The girls just looked at the four intruders for a moment. They all blinked and developed a sweat drop behind their heads.

Erza stood up, "Either shut up and sit down or leave this instant!" Erza was an avid fan of Nicholas Sparks and the four would not interrupt the movie that has been out for far too long without her seeing it.

"Wait, what?" Natsu looked like Erzas words took all fight out of him. "Where are the bad guys?"

Yarrow laughed from her seat half way up the pyramid, "That was just something to get you to leave us alone while we watched movies. Now shut up and sit down or go away." Yarrow echoed the redhead.

Gray wacked Natsu in the head with the frying pan he was holding, "Way to go Flame Brain, no wonder all of the other guys refused to storm the women's room. They knew it was a joke."

"What does that make you, Droopy Eyes?" Natsu stated to have a tiny flame come out of his mouth. "You came over here too, thinking that the girls were in trouble!"

Shark shed his armor and left his spatula on the floor as he walked over to the pyramid of mattresses. He spotted the seat next to Lisanna and dove into it. Once he was settled in, he defended his quick abandonment of the other guys, "There isn't anything else to do."

Happy flew and perched at the very top of the pyramid next to Carla. He still had on his pot-helmet and had a butter knife in hand, earning himself a giggle from the white exceed.

Natsu and Gray were still bickering. Erza moved quickly to the fighting elemental mages. She picked them up by their shirt scruffs and threw them into the mattress pyramid. She made sure that they were banished to opposite sides of the structure to prevent any more fighting.

"What movie are you watching?" Shark asked. He saw the opening scene for The Lucky One on the screen and was convinced that it was a war movie or some other manly movie.

Most of the girls giggled. They knew that the boys just condemned themselves to watching girly movies all day. Erza stated proudly, "Nicholas Sparks' The Lucky One. Now that you are in here, you aren't allowed to leave."

Natsu looked curious. He crawled up to sit next to Yarrow with a smile on his face. Under the watchful eyes of Erza and the rest of the girls, he would wait to greet her properly when the movie was playing. Natsu was peering at the lacrima at the top of the stack, wondering what movie it was playing to make all of the girls giggle.

"It was going to be Brokeback Mountain," Yarrow cackled. Shark was the only one that knew what the movie was about and nearly fell off of the mattress he was on making a loud verbal protest.

"What's that?" Natsu asked as he settled next to Yarrow. She had her hotel-issued blanket on her lap and she shared it willingly with the fire mage. She knew that he didn't need it, but it still felt nice to be close to him again.

Shark suddenly jumped up and ran to the stack after a moment of contemplation. He pilfered through the stack until he came to the one labeled with the cowboy movie. He then proceeded to run out of the room. There was a loud crash and then he came back into the room with a triumphant smirk.

Yarrow waited till Shark settled down once again before she told them what it was about, "I was going to try to trick all of the girls to watch it, but it was about two cowboys falling in love and their relationship over the years."

"So it is about two cowboys falling in love with the same girl?" Gray asked loudly from his position next to Juvia near the bottom of the pile. Juvia was swooning over him because, at some point, he had taken his shirt off.

Yarrow cackled. Shark got fed up with the topic of the movie, "It is about two cowboys falling in love with each other and then getting busy with each other on the side of a mountain."

Yarrow laughed at the sudden, blunt, outburst from her brother, "That isn't what the entire movie is about, Shark."

Natsu was looking horrified at Yarrow. There was a few hushed "Oh's" that erupted from a few of the other people in the room.

"And Shark destroyed it? Damn, that's a movie that I would watch!" Cana declared. She was allowed to go out in the middle of Wall-E to get alcohol. She needed to pick up some food and drinks for the rest of the girls as her punishment for breaking Erzas rule.

There was some conversation between all of them. Erza got tired of waiting to start the Nicholas Sparks movie. She shut up all of the bickering and conversation mages with a single glance.

They started playing the movie from a few frames before where it was paused.

Only a few seconds into the movie, Natsu abruptly scooted closer to Yarrow and wrapped his arm tightly around her shoulder. There was a lot of noise coming from the movie. The opening was chaotic, and she knew that even without knowing what happens, Natsu would know what was going on. Natsu rested his head on her shoulder and whispered a proper greeting to the bone mage and then stretched his neck around so he could plant a kiss on her lips.

Yarrow straightened her back in surprise. She was still just getting used to being physically close to Natsu, let alone affectionate. Sure there was the initial make out session and the dancing, but the sweeter, everyday affections were slowly becoming her. She quickly gave in to the gesture and returned the sweet kiss.

After Natsu, Shark, Gray and Happy burst into the room, the other men trickled in after them every once in a while. All of them were claiming that it was boring without the girls and the rambunctious guys or that the hot springs were still closed. Makarov walked into the room, intent on joining them all. He saw the titles that were stacked up on the movie lacrimas, and then he changed his mind and retreated before Erza could enforce the rule that nobody in the room could leave. He was not about to watch a bunch of sappy romance movies with his children. The other guys had fallen into the trap, but he wasn't going to.

Yarrow was particularly enjoying the sight of Natsu squirm as all of the women, including herself, would squeal whenever something romantic happened in any of the movies.

Yarrow would then enjoy the kiss that Natsu would plant on her forehead or her lips whenever he noticed a particularly high pitched squeal from the light haired girl.

At the end of The Luck One, Natsu had muttered that he thought the guy was creepy. He explained this view by saying that nobody finds a picture in a warzone and then hunts that person down and has a relationship with them and beats up their ex-husband for them. Yarrow reasoned with the fact that it was a love story, and that he needed to look at it in that lens. It was supposed to be a romantic movie. Natsu would always question specific parts of the movie, asking what was so romantic about a guy fixing transportation, referring to the part of the movie where Thibault fixes the tractor. Yarrow sighed and gave up on explaining it to him. He didn't know the benefits of transportation.

She crossed her fingers and hoped that he would at least know what romance was. Granted, he could tell when there was a romantic part of the movie and respond with tightening his grip on her or planting a tender kiss on her, she had a feeling that he did. When The Lucky One ended and the debate of the next movie was brought up, Elfman wanted to end the ridiculous romance movie marathon by playing a manly movie, but was shot down by all of the women, the women put in Titanic despite his arguments.

Elfman argued with the choice of girly movies that were on the playlist. Erza and Mirajane agreed that they wouldn't play any more Nicholas Sparks movies with the men in the room. Erza had to have some additional bribery, such as cake and promises of fights, to suppress her yearnings for Nicholas Sparks movies.

Elfman was subject to the rule that Erza stated. Once someone was in the room, they were no longer allowed to leave. No matter what the large soul take over mage said, it was obvious that he was enjoying, and possibly taking notes on the romantic movies.

Natsu was hilarious to watch the entire time Titanic was playing. He was nauseous the entire movie and had to have a bucket in front of him. Yarrow didn't expect him to enjoy that movie, but he still sheepishly smiled whenever she glanced at him. He stayed next to her no matter how motion sick he got.

At the end scene, all of the women were crying and then Gray jumped up, trying to hide the tears in his eyes, "There is enough room on that damn door for both of you! Scoot over you fat whore!"

He was met by an onslaught from most of the women, "That's not the point of the movie!" and "Don't call Rose a fat whore, you're an exhibitionist slut!" and "Sit down!"

After the end of the movie was fought through, Natsu joined in the fight when all traces of boats were no longer on the screen. Erza rewound the movie to show a boat scene to render Natsu unable to fight.

After that, Dirty Dancing was played, followed by a bombardment of Disney movies.

Sleeping Beauty caught the attention of all of the Dragon Slayers, thinking that the Aberts monster was now in the film because of the shape-shifting Maleficent witch.

When Maleficent turned into a dragon, all of the Slayers were fixated on the screen. They were all claiming that the dragon form of the witch was so unrealistic, but still wanted to see more of it. Gajeel even demanded that Erza pause it while they compared the anatomy to the other own dragons.

When Sleeping Beauty ended, Levi was curious to know why this was a romance movie. The most that Aurora did was act like a typical damsel I distress and prick her finger, making her pass out for most the movie. Then a stranger who sang and danced with her in the woods comes and kisses her in her sleep. Levi expressed how creepy that is. Lucy furrowed her eyebrows and agreed after a moment. They voted that Sleeping Beauty was not a romance movie and tossed the lacrima to the side.

They decided that Beauty and the Beast was a better shot at getting a romance movie. Through the movie, some of the women and Shark sang along with some of the catchy tunes. The romance factor was better, but it was still voted to not be a romance movie by all of the women and even some of the more engaged men were getting worked up about it. Natsu and Gajeel were arguing that Beast kidnapping Belle against her will is, in fact, a romantic act done by Beast. They were suppressed by Elfman and Shark with a comment about free will and family meaning more than some spell.

Yarrow and Levi both inch away from the two male Slayers, not knowing what to think about the blurred definition of romance from the two male Dragon Slayers.

The argument was left that the two Slayers were delusional and were ignored the rest of the time that the movie was being discussed.

Aladdin and Hercules were played after the fight died down. Both were voted to be considered valid romance movies. Both movies sparked few comments. Yarrow found herself singing along with the songs of the movie quietly. It was loud enough for Natsu to know that she was singing along. He grinned and pulled her closer whenever she did.

Step Up found its way to the top of the pile, Shark was really excited through the movie. He started to dance along with the choreography of the movie. He learned how to dance from this movie originally. A lot of the guys and some of the girls stood up, trying to have Shark teach them how to dance like the people in the movie. There were a lot of times where the same scene would be played twenty times over to show the learning dancers what to do.

After the movie, there was a dance battle. Yarrow stayed perched on her mattress half way up the pyramid. She was enjoying the additional entertainment. Shark was killing all of the other people that tried to dance in the battle.

Yarrow suggested that the battle be between the people that were all in the same level. Yarrow was promptly harassed until she came down from Mattress Mountain to dance in a battle against Shark.

She easily won over Shark. Shark was no competition for her because she hadn't been dancing the entire movie, so she was more rested and she still had a hidden arsenal of moves that weren't shown in the movie. She calmly resumed her perch on her mattress with a triumphant grin.

The competition by the other mages was won by Gajeel and everyone settled back into their seats to continue watching their marathon. Gajeel was accused of cheating by the other men. Whatever happened at the club the night before made Gajeel more confident in his dancing skills. Evergreen said that it was obvious that Elfman was the winner, fluffing off Gajeels victory.

The Little Mermaid was next in the marathon.

* * *

I know that this was long, but it was impossible to shorten it for me. I just had so much fun building Mattress Mountain and making Yarrow do the war cry in the hallway. Ah perfect.

Don't forget to check out my other story that has Yarrow and Shark in it!

Till next time,

Amber


	20. Late Night Game

What I intended to do in the last chapter was have a girls night imposed on by the guys, sorry if it wasn't realistic. It's a little funny, I reread that chapter after posting it and I saw all sorts of discrepancies. My apologies, and I will work harder to avoid that again.

It's going to get a little steamy (finally, right?). Whoo!

* * *

**PART TWENTY: LATE NIGHT GAME**

During the last movie, most of the mages fell asleep atop Mattress Mountain. It was only about half way through Princess and the Frog when Natsu caught Yarrows attention.

They both smiled. They wordlessly agreed that they would wait for the rest of the mages to fall asleep before they snuck off of Mattress Mountain and out of the room. They probably wouldn't have to wait long because only Erza and Juvia were the only other people still awake.

Yarrow leaned into Natsu more as the night got later, the two other mages were taking forever to all asleep, Yarrow was even on the verge of falling asleep.

Erza finally slipped off to sleep about ten minutes from the end of Tangled. Natsu put his hand on Yarrows shoulder to make sure that the Bone Dragon Slayer was still awake. She seemed to startle back to consciousness. His hand was really warm, Natsu made a mental note that the change in temperature would wake her up.

Yarrow looked down at the mountain of mages. She saw that they were all sleeping and then playfully looked back up at Natsu. They wordlessly made their way down the side of the structure. The mattresses creaked and threatened to transfer motion to all of the sleeping mages as they crawled down the side.

Yarrow lightly pushed Natsu out of the door when he wanted to celebrate with a kiss to the bone mage for getting off the mountain. She gingerly pulled to door closed before she faced the fire mage.

She couldn't resist him any longer; she leaned onto her tip toes and wrapped her arms around his neck. Her hands brushed against his soft pink hair. She leaned close to him and kissed him. He snaked his arms around her waist and pulled her closer.

They stay in the embrace for a moment before parting.

Natsu smiled and put his hand on his neck, "Now what do we do?"

Yarrow laughed nervously and retracted her arms from around his neck. All of those romance movies were affecting her. She made sure that Natsu would follow her before walking down the hallway to walk to the convenient store. She was dying for some calcium.

The cashier at the convenient store was surprised to see her again. He greeted her by name and talked about his day. He saw Natsu tail her into the store, "Oh, is this the man that gave you that collar?"

Yarrow nodded slightly with a faint blush. It was far too long of a story to tell the cashier that it was only there due to two separate games of Truth or Dare. She made a b-line to the back of the store where the milk and other diary was stored in refrigerators.

Natsu eyed the old man the entire time Yarrow was picking out her milk and chocolate bars. She asked if he wanted anything, but he conceded to eating whatever she decided to buy him.

The man enthused that there was a lot more business because mages from a neighboring city sent powerful mages to take care of the monster, "You know, old man, we are two of the mages that was sent to get rid of the monster."

"Oh well, that makes sense," The man said. "The monster was destroyed only a few nights after Yarrow came to town. I had a feeling that it was partly her doing."

The old man and Natsu began to talk. Natsu would call the old man weird and then the old man would complement Natsu. The fire mage was obviously flattered and began to show off some of his magic skills to him.

Yarrow placed the items she was going to buy on the counter, she nudged Natsu out of the way.

The two mages bided the old man goodbye, telling him that they were leaving sometime the following day. The man looked a little disappointed that they were leaving, but assured them that he would be very happy if either of the two came back anytime.

They were walking aimlessly around the town. They would spot a wandering partygoer every once in a while on the streets, but wouldn't catch up to them. The two of them were enjoying their solitude.

"So, I have a question," Natsu was walking with his hands in his pockets, letting the bone mage consume her quota of calcium. Yarrow made a humming sound as to tell him that she was listening, "Did you smell something different today?"

Yarrow swallowed the remaining amount of milk in her carton, "Yeah, Levi is beginning to smell a little more like Gajeel." Natsu stared at her for a moment. It made her think that he really didn't know about the hybridization of smells between the two, "I noticed it, but Wendy told me what it was."

From the looks of it Natsu only just connected the two smelling like the other. He still was looking like he just solved a great mystery when he stopped. His head cocked to the side slightly. Yarrow suppressed an "aw" at his adorable expression. She sighed as she looked at him.

Natsu shook his head and focused on the light haired girl, "You don't think that he marked her, do you?"

Yarrows expression turned confused, "I don't even know what that is."

"It was one of the first things that I remember Igneel teaching me. Didn't your dad teach you about marking?" Natsu looked at her like she just started speaking a different language. His expression wrote out "you're weird" for him.

Yarrow sighed. She began walking again with the fire mage at her heels, "I wasn't taught a lot about dragons from my dad. He was very childish and only liked to teach me games and teach me how to catch superb rabbits with good bones."

"Oh that makes sense now!" Natsu exclaimed. He wondered why she loved games so much. "Marking is a part of dragon culture that is kind of like marking territory. But with marking a person, it is declaring the person so that they can't be claimed by other dragons."

"Gajeel didn't pee on her did he?" Yarrow stopped. She tried really hard to not get a mental picture.

Natsu laughed, "What? Ew. No. It's nothing like that."

"So is Levi claimed as Gajeels forever?" Yarrow asked. She was baffled by the large portions of culture that her dad didn't mention to her. She was suddenly thankful to be in the company of another Dragon Slayer so she could learn more about her own traditions.

"Igneel was never really clear on the process of marking, but he did say that it needs to be repeated for however long we want to claim the person," Natsu was talking like this was normal conversation, not discussing enigmatic dragon culture. He slipped a "we" in his explanation. Yarrow slightly smiled. She wasn't sure if he was referring to himself and Gajeel or to Dragon Slayers in general.

"So it is the equivalent of dating?" Yarrow looked at the ground to avoid his gaze.

Natsu was quiet for a moment, "I guess it is. Igneel never really pointed out any differences other than only dragons can mark someone."

"Did your dad tell you how to go about marking someone?" Yarrow was now curious to learn her own culture and was even curious on how to practice some of these traditions. She looked at the pink haired boy next to her, hoping that he would understand why she was so curious about marking.

Natsu looked away from her. He looked like he didn't want to say anything else about the topic. Yarrow decided to resort to her childish instinct, "You know don't you? I dare you to tell me."

"That's not fair!" Natsu exclaimed, snapping his attention back to Yarrow. Yarrow didn't verbally respond. She merely looked at Natsu, expecting him to tell her. Natsu growled out loud before he looked away from her in a pout, "Igneel only told me that it was something very physical."

Yarrow averted her eyes from him. At some point, they managed to find their way back to their normal meeting place on the back patio of the spa. There was some moisture in the air, making the dew gather on the greenery in the orchard. Yarrow smiled at the simple beauty in the area.

The two of them perched on the fence, where they always did. Natsu moved closer to her.

"Man," Natsu said as he put his arm around Yarrow nonchalantly. "Gajeel had more time with his dragon than we did. I wanna know some specifics."

Yarrow continued to not meet his eyes. She leaned into him to show that she enjoyed the physical contact. She tried to hide the blush on her face, "Why do you want to know?"

Yarrow could feel Natsus entire body move that she was beginning to recognize as him grinning, "You know, for my own reasons."

That was enough of an answer for Yarrow to let the flood of blood seep into her face.

They sat there in silence for a few minutes. Natsu knew that the light haired girl in his arms was thinking of the dragon traditions. Abruptly, he grasped her shoulders and moved her so he could look at her in the eyes, "I dare you to sneak into the hot springs with me."

Yarrow gasped, "What?"

"You dared me to tell you what marking was, so I am daring you to break into the hot springs with me," Natsu explained. He wasn't about to go in there all alone. He and the other boys hadn't destroyed that much of the spa, so most of it should be intact.

"Why break into it. We have all day tomorrow before we leave to go there. It should be open tomorrow," Yarrow shook her head.

Natsu got a devilish expression, "Then you are breaking the rules of the game."

Yarrow and Natsu hadn't talked about the consequences of breaking the rules, but she knew that it wouldn't be pleasant if she let him think about it for too long.

She returned the devilish expression. Why the hell not? She shifted slightly and challenged the pink haired boy, "I dare you to try to beat me there."

She darted away from him. She knew that he was faster than she was, so she had to bank on catching him off guard to actually beat him.

She should have mentioned something about trying to keep the damages to a minimum. She realized that he had every intention to blast a hole in the fence to get into the Spa area when they rounded the corner. Natsu was close at her heels, so she needed to come up with how to get over the fence without causing damage.

It was almost like there was a clear path to breaking into the spa. She noticed that there was a cluster of trashcans with a dumpster against the fence. Yarrow booked it for the obvious path in to the spa. She jumped on a trashcan, then to the dumpster. She looked to make sure that it was safe to jump over the fence.

She would land on some grass on the inside of the fence. Natsu jumped onto the trashcan behind her as she jumped over the fence.

"Oh no you don't!" Natsu lunged at Yarrow's feet as she got over the fence. He crashed face first into the fence. He quickly shook it off and followed her over the fence.

Yarrow was laughing so hard that she couldn't get to her feet. She was too concerned to escape the attack from Natsu on the other side of the fence to land on her feet.

Natsu landed on his feet next to her. He was glaring at the girl that was laughing hysterically at him.

"What is so funny, huh?" Natsu asked. His glare morphed into a playful gaze. He began to tickle her. Yarrow was convinced that she was going to die because she was not breathing. Natsu was beat by her in a race and his crushed expression was far too funny to not laugh at, and then the harassment of tickling her wasn't helping.

Natsu stopped tickling her after he noticed that she was turning a dark shade of blue behind her tan skin. She panted for breath for a long while on the ground. Natsu was slightly laughing at how he found another weakness on the light haired mage.

"Woah, this place is really creepy with all of the lanterns turned out," Natsu observed. "I wonder if this place is haunted."

Yarrow bolted to a ridged sitting position, "Don't even joke about that." She held her torso in her arms and looked around. Now that Natsu had mentioned it, it was very creepy in the hot spring area. Only one in five lanterns was lit in the area, casting shadows onto the rock walls and the fences. The sound of trickling water would mask any sounds made by anything that would haunt the area.

Natsu began to say what would be cool to happen in the springs, like a zombie or a powerful, evil mage appearing out of nowhere.

Yarrow shook her head at him. She was just going to have to get used to the random fixations that he went through. She shook the feeling that the area could be haunted, knowing that two Dragon Slayers from Fairy Tail were far more powerful than anything that could attack them. She began to wander away from the ranting Natsu.

Natsu absent-mindedly tailed after her through the darkened spa. He is now talking about what he would do with a zombie apocalypse in the tiny town that they were in. He explained that he would burn them all up so fast that they would wish that they never became undead.

Yarrow navigated through the spa area, sometimes responding to Natsu. She realized that they were in the family hot spring area. This area was so big and she never realized how many pools there were in the vicinity.

She ventured around. Natsu fixated on if zombie meat was good to eat or not. Yarrow looked at him with an expression that questioned his sanity. He continued to deduce nutritional facts about zombie meat or what a good side to serve with it would be. He figured that corn goes good with anything.

Yarrow found herself and Natsu in front of a deep pool. The mountain petered to a rock wall on the far side of the pool that had a dark void in it. This must be the pool that leads to the tunnels with the private pools.

Yarrow observed the pool for a moment. The pool backed up against the mountain, so the springs must be coming from somewhere in the mountain. She didn't think that the hot springs would go into the side of an actual mountain.

Yarrow took her shoes off and set them to the side. Natsu glanced at the pool, not really observing the ingenuity that it took to create the pools around the spring.

Yarrow caught Natsus attention when she began to take her pants off.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Natsu asked. He turned a faint shade of pink.

Yarrow looked at him shocked, "Well, were we just going to break in here and not get in?"

Natsu stuttered an indistinguishable answer to her. He ended up nodding. He turned away from her as she finished taking her pants off and cast them near her boots.

Yarrow lowered herself into the hot water. The water was hotter than it was a few days ago, there wasn't anyone to take any of the heat away from the water with their cold skin.

She took of her shirt and turned to look at the blushing pink haired boy behind her. He was in the process of taking his pants off but had frozen as he was looking at her. Yarrow flashed him a flirtatious smile. She threw her shirt to the side of the pool, "What, is it, too hot for you?"

With a smirk signifying that he liked the temptation, splashed into the water, just barely shedding his pants off before dove under the water. They floated to the entrance to the tunnels.

Yarrow and Natsu both did their dares from earlier. Natsu had lost in the race to the hot spring and Yarrow had broke into said hot spring.

Natsu floated closer to the bone mage.

"I wonder if Levi knows that she is marked," Yarrow asked out loud. She was well aware of the fire mage coming closer to her. She felt like she had a swimsuit on in the pool, so she wasn't worried about the exposure.

"You seem to be really interested in marking," Natsu chuckled as he drifted to be right beside Yarrow. He leaned in and whispered into her ear, "Want to figure out how to be marked?"

Natsus childish tone played on his jaunty grin. They both knew that this was still their game of truth or dare. Natsu made it clear that questions were fair game for either the truth or dare selection. He retreated away from her a few inches to see her reaction.

Yarrow didn't give him the luxury of getting a visual response. She put her hands on his shoulders and pulled them slightly to close the distance between the two once again. He smirked as she leaned up close to his ear. He was expecting her to whisper something in his ear. He twitched in surprise as her dragon-like fag nipped at his ear.

He now realized why she was putty in his hands whenever he was that close to her. He nearly shivered despite the hot water around him. Her breath on his neck had a mind-numbing effect on him.

She pushed him back, he drifted slowly away from her into the middle of the pool. She smiled as she saw that she had the same effect on him as he did to her. She wades to the entrance of the tunnel and turns to him with a determined look on her face, "I dare you to come find out."

She disappeared into the dark tunnel. It was carved out of the rock from the side of the mountain and the water was even hotter than the water in the pool.

After remembering what his question was, Natsu got his footing and slowly waded after her after regaining his composure. His chase instinct had kicked in, but knew that she wanted to be caught. He could take his time.

Yarrow was at least ten feet in front of Natsu as she was leading him further into the mountain. There were a few bridges of land that led out of the water that went to secluded pools somewhere else in the mountain. Yarrow would occasionally look behind her to check if Natsu still following her, obviously enjoying the slow speed chase through the tunnels.

It was too dark to see his face, but she would occasionally catch a flash of his teeth or a gleam of his eyes in the dark, moist tunnel.

At the end of the main tunnel, there was a rope tied across the walkway. There was a corroded wooden sign on the wall that said that further down the tunnel was the VIP spring.

Yarrow simply ducked under the rope and continued. She was already breaking the rules, so what is one more.

There was about twenty feet of pool after the sign before there was a staircase out of the water. She quickly climbed the stairs and quickened her pace to a slow run down the tunnel. She heard Natsu fumble up the stairs and dart after her soon after she quickened her pace.

Yarrow turned a corner, glancing behind her to make sure that Natsu was still at a manageable distance behind so he didn't catch up to her. When she looked back infront of her, she looked at the sight ahead of her and stopped in front of the pool, awestruck.

There was a bright light from the moon shining through the cloudy sky. The tunnels went completely through the mountain to the other side to this open spring. It is surrounded by forest. About forty feet from the edge of the medium sized pool there was a disguised fence, probably to keep out the larger wildlife from the area.

Natsu came around the corner and wrapped his arm around Yarrows waist and pulled her into him, he purred into her ear, "Caught you."

* * *

Yes, I am evil. I leave you hanging.

Well, till next time,

Amber


	21. Marking

I AM ALIVE! Sorry for the (extremely) late update. Life has kind of bit me in the butt lately. I will try to not let the late update happen again. I will post another one real soon to try to make up for this being so late. Please forgive me! And, by some twist of fate, this chapter is short.

* * *

**PART TWENTY ONE: MARKING**

Yarrow would blush when she met Natsu's eyes from across the room. She would smile at him through her reddened face and then would look down to her hands or to her cup. Natsu would behave in a similar fashion whenever he caught himself staring at Yarrow for too long. Luckily, the events of last night were still a mystery to the rest of the mages.

It didn't take long for the more observant mages from the guild to notice this behavior. They knew that the two of them went out somewhere after they all fell asleep on the Mattress Mountain in the room, but none of them have pried out a straight answer of them.

Levi would cast questioning glances at Yarrow. Yarrow and Levi were both sitting at a table close to the corner of a bar. Before everyone exited the room in the morning, the all agreed to meet at the bar before they left back for Magnolia. Levi has been devoting her entire morning to getting an answer out of Yarrow. She knew something happened last night and wanted to know before anyone else.

Yarrow wanted to keep what had happened between her and Natsu a secret for as long as she could. Considering that the actions that they carried out last night weren't exactly the most law-abiding thing that they have done.

The two Dragon Slayers knew that it was highly unlikely that they were the Mages of Fairy Tail were the perpetrators of what happened.

Other than the questionably legal actions, Yarrow had a feeling that the two other Dragon Slayers would know right away when and if her and Natsu make a successful mark. Hell, Yarrow didn't even know if they were even on the right track of doing a successful mark.

Levi gave up on prying information from Yarrow after Yarrow covered her face with her hands and shook her head. With a sigh, the bluenette walked over to the bar to sit next to Cana.

Gajeel took the seat that Levi vacated. He had a half-full tankard in his hand with some frothy liquid in it. He looked at Yarrow with a quizzical look, narrowing his eyes and leaning over the table slightly. He brought his tankard up to his lips and took a drink.

Suddenly he muttered, "Vanilla and coconut." Yarrow looked at the Iron Dragon Slayer confused. Was he already drunk or was he just muttering nonsensical things?

"Is that the flavor of your beer or something?" Yarrow laughed.

"No, this is just cider. Vanilla and coconut is what you normally smell like, now you also have a very faint smell of sagebrush and cedar on you."

Yarrow was looking at Gajeel, expecting him to continue. Gajeel leaned in even closer to her. Yarrow leaned back in the booth, unaware of what Gajeel was about to do.

"He was trying to mark you, wasn't he?" Gajeel leaned back and took a drink from his tankard.

Yarrow didn't respond, she just let her face turn bright pink and her eyes fell to the wood of the table. They were in the right track at least. That was good enough for two young Dragon Slayers.

"He isn't going to mark you properly if you two don't follow through," Gajeel almost cackled at the reaction from the bone mage. She looked up a little surprised. Could he really tell what they did just by the smell? "Look, Squirt, it's cute that you two are trying, but you really don't have any idea on what is actually going on do you?"

Yarrow still didn't look up to meet his eyes. She was seeing red due to the rush of blood to her face, "Ostios never told me anything about this stuff."

Gajeel was silent for a moment, he wasn't sure how to respond to the cluelessness of the younger Dragon Slayer. His face softened with his tone, "Obviously, you have an idea of what you need to do now."

The barista came over and took the empty mug from in front of Yarrow and replaced it with another mug of hot chocolate. The presence of another person made her feel more at ease with the more experienced Dragon Slayer. She looked up to face him.

"What exactly is it then? Explain it to me," Yarrow pressed. She averted her eyes from his and rested her sight on the base of his chin. She was very embarrassed and self conscious about how open he was about talking about the topic in a public setting.

Gajeel took a long drink from his tankard. Natsu finished his conversation and made his way across the room to the booth. He sat down close to Yarrow and slung his arm around her shoulders. "What you talking about?" He asked in a sing-song voice. He must of known that Gajeel knew about the pseudo-mark.

Gajeel laughed and put his now empty tankard off to the side. Yarrow turned an unnatural shade of pink. "I'll let you tell him," Gajeel said.

Gajeel stood up and joined Levi at the bar, leaving Yarrow's question unanswered and Natsu curious.

Natsu looked after the leaving black haired man. He turned to Yarrow and made it clear that he still wanted his question answered.

"Um, well," Yarrow began. She wasn't about to tell him what Gajeel told her when Shark and Lisanna were walking towards them. "Um, I'll tell you later"

Yarrow was the color of a tomato.

Natsu opened his mouth to further question what the two were talking about. There is nothing that he hates more than secrets or waiting. Erza and Makarov came into the room, interrupting Natsu's train of thought. The two said that they all had their train tickets to go back to Magnolia that was leaving right then.

When they all got settled on the train, Natsu automatically got motion sick and was rendered incapable of talking. Yarrow patted his back and recalled what had happened the previous night, hoping that nobody would ask her about it while on the train.

* * *

Yarrow had stopped at the mouth of the tunnel, taking in the sight of the little oasis in front of her. Natsu slowed down when he approached the corner, seeing the reflection of the light on the darkened tunnel walls.

He inched closer to the corner, knowing that the Bone Dragon Slayer loved games. She might have waited right around the corner to trick him or scare him. He grinned and slowly peeked around the corner.

His breath instantly caught in his throat at what he saw. The tunnels had dumped them out on the opposite side of the mountain. The moonlight caught him off guard, not realizing how bright it was shining tonight. His sharp eyes adjusted to the silhouette of the girl first. He felt a sudden lurch in his breathing.

She was looking up at the moon. The spring seemed to slowly come into focus as she did, it provided the perfect backdrop to her slender form. The moonlight was caught in all of the spring water that beaded all over her tan body, dancing over all of the curves of her form. The light bouncing around her made her look beautiful. No, she looked more than that.

She looked radiant, standing in the open for only his eyes to see.

Her long light blonde hair seemed to guide his eyes the length of her body. For the first time, Natsu saw what she was wearing. He knew when she entered the spring on the other side of the mountain, she had removed her outer clothing. He knew that she was only in her underwear.

Around the guild, he had seen many girls in minimal clothing. He lost track of the number of times that he saw Lucy in a towel or the times Erza exquipped with nothing but a cloud of fine dust around her.

With all of the other times he saw a partially naked woman taken into account, none of those times were nearly as erotic as the sight before him.

She was wearing a light blue matching set of lingerie. They would be perfectly presentable, modest even, if the light fabric didn't become see through when they were wet. And even then, they would still go unnoticed if the bright light of the full moon wasn't illuminating the fabric.

Natsu bit into the inside of his lip to prevent a growl of satisfaction escaping his mouth.

He quietly walked forward after a moment of just absorbing the sight. He wrapped his arms around her waist, "I caught you."

He felt her tense a little as he pulled her closer. She quickly relaxed when she realized that her captor was Natsu. Yarrow leaned back onto him and turned her head slightly, "You caught me, now what are you going to do with me?"

Natsu leaned his face close to her neck, dragging his nose and lower lip on the exposed parts of skin. He grinned as he felt her shiver from the touch, "I am sure we can think of something."

Yarrow seemed to be at a loss for words when Natsu began to breathe hot air onto her neck. The skin was still wet, making the dramatic change of temperature even more sensational.

Something in Yarrow jumpstarted her so that her brain to started working again. She stealthily escaped from his grasp and made her way to the edge of the spring. She looked over her shoulder with a sultry grin. He looked surprised at how she got steps away from him suddenly.

She locked eyes with Natsu and slowly descended into the spring, instantly getting Goosebumps on her skin from the heat of the water.

Natsu was still standing where she left him. Though he hadn't moved, his eyes followed every movement she made. He seemed to be drinking the view. Yarrow had to catch her breath after seeing him from afar.

There was the side of him that he showed everyone, the adorable side that is completely loveable and sometimes charming. Then Natsu had this side, the inhumanly lustworthy god that stood before her. To call him adorable now would be an insult. He is ravishing with the moonlight casting its light over him, catching the beads of water on his skin and in his hair and tossing light around, like the moon was his own personal spotlight. Yarrow stared at him.

She composed herself under his watchful gaze, "Well, are you just going to stay out there? I know that you don't get cold, but leaving me unsupervised in here might end badly."

Natsu responded with a lustful grin and walked to the edge of the spring.

Yarrow turned her back to him and slowly waded towards the other side of the pool, knowing that the pink haired man would follow.

Natsu had joined Yarrow in the pool. Yarrow expected him to come barging into the pool and splashing his way over to her. He surprised her by biding his time. He came up behind her and placed his lips on her neck. Yarrow moaned and tilted her head in the opposite direction.

Natsu stopped in his flirtatious actions to pull Yarrow away from him to look him in the eye, the water making a silent splash at the sudden movement. "Are sure you want to try to do this?" His look demanded that she answer truthfully to his question. He knew how important that question was. Dragon culture and his own culture were riding on a very thin line when it came to marking.

The blush was still present across Yarrows cheeks. Not trusting her voice, she nodded. A sly grin crept onto Natsu face as he pulled her closer to him. It wasn't long before their lips crashed together.

Yarrow tangled one of her hands in his damp hair and pulled him closer to deepen the kiss. He wrapped an arm her lower back. He lifted her up, her legs wrapped around him waist to keep her balance.

Natsu moved forward a few steps, unwilling to break their kiss. Yarrow moved to keep her balance, she was giggling. Natsu took the opportunity of her leaning back to press his face into her chest.

She gasped at the sudden pressure. Natsu smirked and flicked his tongue out of his mouth and slowly drew circles on her chest. She hummed in pleasure as one of his hands inched up her side and found its way under her bra, squeezing her breasts.

The two saw a flicker of light reflecting off of the cave. They turned towards the cave entrance and heard sloshing in the water. The light got brighter on the reflection. A figure came around the corner and a flashlight ran over them.

"Hey! What are you doing back here! We are closed!" A flashlight beam hit the water around the two Dragon Slayers. The beam instantly fell from the guard dropping the flashlight. He didn't expect to actually find people in here.

Instantly noticing the threat, the two scrambled out of the pool and ran into the forest, holding hands.

The two quickly made their way to the fence and hopped it before the guard could pick up his flashlight and pursue them.

The two of them quickly made their way around the mountain, laughing at how close they were to being caught.

They had to sneak back into the Springs and retrieve their clothes. They didn't want to leave any evidence that they were there. The two grabbed their designated pile of clothes as a flashlight beam was flashing from inside the mouth of the tunnel.

Yarrow pointed to it and eeped. Natsu saw it and grabbed Yarrow and ran towards the closest fence.

* * *

Yep, that is right, no lemon. Just be patient, little grasshoppers.

I never really had to think what a guy thinks, but eh, I think I did well with winging it. Tell me what you think so I can go an edit my lemons in future chapters to adjust

See you next time,

Amber


	22. Back to Magnolia

Hello all, as promised, another chapter as a graveling present. I won't disappear like that again. Well, in any case, I like this chapter. It was fun to write, nice and calm and cute. Tell me what you think.  
This is also a celebration because I have a snow day today. That may not be big news, but the campus that I attend doesn't ever have snow days. Last year, there was a 36inch snowstorm and campus was still open. So, this posting is an ode to my good mood and my happiness of not having to go anywhere today.

* * *

**PART TWENTY TWO: BACK TO MAGNOLIA**

The tiny guild looked a lot less extravagant than the spa that they had been staying in for the past week. All of the mages from the trip made their way into the small double doors to the guild. The mages that returned from Tenrou Island were even more shocked since they went from the old guild in the center of town with its own pool to a shack on the outskirts of town.

The train ride wasn't anything special. Natsu was as sick as always. Yarrow was too busy thinking about the intimate encounter to get any rest on the train. Yarrow, Gajeel and Wendy chatted about random stuff on the way back when Natsu finally passed out.

Jet and Droy jumped for joy as they saw Levi approaching them. They, like all of the other non-Dragon Slayer mages, didn't smell the different aroma that was lingering on her skin. It was going to take a while for Yarrow to get used to knowing exactly what the Iron Dragon Slayer and the Script mage did in their spare time.

The rest of the guild members were in the guild hall. Laxus and the other two members of the Thunder Gods were being served drinks from a petite redheaded barista, but were otherwise happy to see the female in their ranks return.

Yarrow sighed. She helped Natsu to the guild and sat down at a table. Natsu recovered from his motion sickness and was now fighting with Gray, Shark and Erza. Yarrow barely even greeted anyone before she collapsed table.

The moment that she sat down in her trusted surroundings, the lack of sleep caught up with her. Her arms felt like anchors and the rest of her body refused to obey her. Her head slammed into the table with a loud thunk.

The pain that the impact had made kept her awake, "Ow."

"That was a delayed reaction, Yarrow-nee," Romeo laughed as he joined her at the table.

Yarrow was still unable to control her body, it had abandoned her in order to recover from the week with minimal sleep, "Everything is delayed with me right now, Shorty."

"That is no different than normal," Romeo slid a mug full of hot chocolate to Yarrow. She tried to shift her head to look at it. She knew that she wouldn't be able to move to grab it for a while. Romeo always waited for Yarrow when she got back from long out of town missions. She was too proud to go straight home after a mission, so she would come to the guild and pass out at a table for hours before groggily walking back to her house when she could move again.

"You are lucky that I can't move right now, Shorty," Yarrow averted to glare in the direction of the young fire mage.

After Evergreen was welcomed back by the other members of the Thunder Gods, Laxus sauntered over to the table where Yarrow and Romeo were.

Yarrow lifted her gaze to look at him, "Apologies for not moving, it seems I can't move at all at the moment." She answered his unanswered question. She always felt horrible for not being respectful to those that tried to talk to her when she was in this state, she physically could not move, even to properly talk with someone. Romeo smiled and rose his hand in a wave of acknowledgement of the lightning user, he knew that Laxus would probably ignore him in order to talk to Yarrow.

"So you are a Dragon Slayer, huh?" Laxus tsked and smirked at her collapsed form.

"Afraid of more Dragon-worthy competition?" Yarrow mirrored his smirk. She hoped that he saw that she was being sarcastic. The two were in an intense staring match when Laxus adverted his eyes.

Laxus scoffed, "Hurry up and recover, I want to see what you got as a Slayer." Before Yarrow could even respond to his challenge, he was already across the room, back with the other members of the Thunder Gods.

"Are you dead?" Natsu appeared next to Yarrow while she was still following Laxus with her eyes. Natsu sat down next to her and poked her in her side. He gained himself a dirty look and a threat that she would hurt him if he did that again.

Naturally, Natsu being Natsu, he poked her again. Yarrow growled at him before she burst into immobile laughter. Natsu figured that she was ticklish, like some of the other women in the guild and attacked her sides.

"I'm going to die!" Yarrow screeched as Natsu didn't cease his assault.

When Natsu was finished with his tickle attack on Yarrow, he scooted closer to her. Romeo was shaking his head at the two. He didn't need the other members of the guild to tell him that the two of them were an item. Romeo observed that Natsu was physically supportive of Yarrow and would quickly kiss her forehead, temple, hair or hand whenever he thought nobody was looking. Romeo noticed that Yarrow wasn't nearly as defensive with Natsu close. Normally, she would threaten people that got within arms length of her whenever she returned from a mission and couldn't move.

Romeo chatted with Natsu for a while, to allow Yarrow to sleep. Yarrow passed out about three sentences into the story that Natsu was telling about how they made a mountain out of mattresses in the hotel to watch movie lacrimas.

After a while, Yarrow woke up and was able to stand up. She got up and stretched. She was vaguely paying attention to the conversations that were going on in the hall. Raki had joined Levi, Lucy and Juvia to talk about the nightlife that they experienced in the town. Raki was saying that she never was compelled to join in on the nightlife in any town, but was obviously excited to listen to the stories from the other girls.

"Don't expect to see me around the guild for a while," Yarrow said to Cana, who she knew would tell everyone else. Cana nodded, figuring that Yarrow was going to sleep for a few days. Yarrow yawned and walked towards the door. She tiredly waved over her shoulder as she walked to the north from the guild doors.

Natsu ran up to her and walked beside her. She tiredly looked at him, wondering why he was following her. Happy appeared flying close behind Natsu's head with his signature smile across his blue fur. He smiled and said, "You live near us."

Yarrow knew that he and Happy meant to accompany her all the way to her house. She was sure that the Fire Dragon Slayer would be able to smell his way to finding her house, but she lightly smiled as he walked closer to her. He would defiantly be able to sniff his way to her door. It made her happy to know that he was willing to let her show him where it was instead of sneaking into her room like he does with Lucy. Happy walked ahead of both of the Dragon Slayers on the path that they normally take to get to their own house.

Yarrow was silent for most of the time because the sleepless nights were catching up with her. Natsu and Happy would occasionally make a comment that Yarrow would weakly nod and smile to.

The trio got to the field where Natsu and Happys place was. They dropped off their bags inside their door and followed Yarrow to her house. Yarrow hadn't stopped on her path to her house, but she was walking so slowly that the fire mage and the exceed easily caught up with her. She had made this trip many times while half asleep.

Yarrow led them on a small path through the forest that led to a small cabin house. If normal people were in the woods and were not looking for the cabin, they would pass right by it and never know it was there. It blended with the landscape very well.

Yarrow wastes no time in walking to the front door and lazily tossing it open. She let Natsu and Happy enter before she did. She shut the door behind the trio. She figured Shark would stay at the guild with Lisanna for quite a while longer. Neither of them really made friends to bring back to the house, but she had a feeling that Shark wouldn't mind Natsu and Happy being in their house.

She trudged to the kitchen where she flung open the refrigerator to search for milk or some other dairy product that didn't go bad in the week that they were gone. She found yogurt that hadn't gone bad and grabbed it. She noticed her visitors, "Do you guys want anything? We don't have much right now, just lots of dairy and meat and fish."

Natsu and Happy took the invitation to look though all of her cabinets and the fridge as well. They rummaged through every box of food until they found what they were looking for. Yarrow had settled down on the couch in the living area. Her yogurt container was discarded to an end table by the time the two boys joined her.

"Say, Yarrow," Natsu asked as he tore through a turkey leg. "Why don't you have an exceed nakama? Aren't all Dragon Slayers supposed to have an exceed?"

Yarrow blinked her eyes, trying to focus her tired eyes on the pink haired fire mage, "The one that will tolerate me doesn't quite exist yet."

Both the boys stopped their shoveling of their food to look at her, confusion written on their stuffed faces.

Even though Yarrow couldn't focus on anything, she knew that she would have to explain, "I have a decent connection with a pair of exceed, but neither of them want to spend too much time with me. But when their egg hatches, I feel it in my bones that he will be my exceed nakama."

Natsu came in from his seat in the kitchen and sat down next to her Yarrow yawned and rested her head on his shoulder. "Sybil and Mark are their names. They should be coming here at some point in the next few days, they always like to check up on me." Her thoughts got muddied as she came closer to falling asleep.

Since Yarrow was barely conscious, the fire mage and the exceed got their entertainment by making a game of who could make Yarrow wake up in different ways. Whenever one of them did something to wake the mage, they would owe one fish to the other. The two of them tried tickling her with feathers, making her smell vanilla (that they found in her kitchen) and other smelling things, Natsu even moved her around like a puppet for a full ten minutes before the bone mage woke from her sleep.

Natsu was winning, meaning Happy owed him many more fish. The exceed grew less creative with his attempts to bother the bone mage, then got completely bored with the game.

Happy left after Yarrow fell asleep without waking up again. Natsu was content to let the bone mage rest her head on his shoulder for a while so he told the blue cat that he would meet him home later.

While he was sitting there, he would fondly look down at the light haired girl whenever she would grab onto his scarf or jacket in her sleep.

He didn't know what it was about her, but he wanted to spend every moment with her. Before he and the rest of the powerful mages of Fairy Tail went off to Tenrou Island, he never paid her that much attention. There were at least a hundred other mages in the guild before, and she never stood out to him. Sure she healed him a few times, but she seemed to be a healer mage, to be stuck inside the guild and have no way of becoming a force to reckon with.

Maybe it was her age that made him overlook her. Maybe it was that she never really drew attention to herself, other than the fights that she would get into with Shark.

How wrong he was to underestimate her. She is a Dragon Slayer, just like him and she was always looking up to him and trying to follow his lead. She is a true mage of Fairy Tail. Now that they were closer in age, Natsu finds himself distracted with thinking of her. Especially since she worked all of the years that he was gone to keep Fairy Tail afloat.

Her dedication to the guild amazed him. Shark had openly admitted that he would have left to join another guild if it weren't for Yarrow being so faithful to the name of Fairy Tail. Shark said that right before Natsu had blurted that he was _noticing_ Yarrow when they were still at the hot springs. Natsu smiled, that was the fight that made the Hot Springs close down.

Natsu furrowed his eyebrows, there wasn't just one thing that he could point out that made this girl special. He thought that maybe it was because of just that. She wasn't a girl like Lucy or Erza that would flaunt themselves around, broadcasting that they were women to be idolized as sex symbols. Yarrow was that subtle reminder that normality was just as appealing as exotics, and ten times more comfortable. Not only that, but Yarrow had a dangerous and unpredictable side to her that would keep him guessing.

Natsu smiled at his revelation, proud that he figured it out. Yarrow hadn't moved in a while when Natsu started to observe the bookshelf from his seat on the couch. He saw a book that caught his eye and was trying to find a way to grab it without disturbing the peaceful sleep of the bone mage.

He soon gave up stretching for it. He knew that if he sent his flame over to grab it, the book would probably light ablaze. He sighed and began to shimmy out of his position with Yarrow. She seemingly accepted his movement away from her. Natsu let her head down easy to rest on the back of the couch, resisting the urge to kiss her forehead again in fear of waking her up.

He walked over to the bookshelf and grabbed the book that caught his attention. It wasn't labeled, but it looked like an old book. Natsu flipped it open to the middle. He held the book close to his face when he saw what was written. The print was a swirly, but he recognized the language as his own. There were handwritten notes in the margins. Somehow he knew that those notes were made by Yarrow.

Natsu shut the book when he saw that the book was a storybook with lots of children's fables and stories. A book that Yarrow cherished, judging by the notes on the sides. He observed the outside of the book for a while, until his thoughts were interrupted by Yarrow, "Natsu?"

He put it back on the shelf and walked the short distance to the couch. He was confused, but felt complimented because the light haired girl was still fast asleep. It is nice to know that he is in her mind as much as she is in his. And it was adorable that she talked in her sleep. He was about to go and observe other books on the shelf when Yarrow muttered a phrase in her sleep that made him freeze.

Natsu had heard the phrase said between people all of the time at the guild and on the street. This time, his heart jumped when he realized that it was directed at him.

He hadn't really known what the big deal was from all of the people that said it. How was it any different than any other phrase between friends? His heart pained thinking that there was any way to say that to just any friend anymore.

Before Natsu could react like he wanted to, his sharp nose caught the scent of Shark coming closer to the cabin. He knew that it was time for him to take his leave.

He wanted to wake her up and ask her if she meant what she said in her sleep, but that would have to wait for another time.

He walked over to Yarrow and cupped her cheek. He leaned in close and replied to her sleep talking. Maybe her subconscious mind would hear it.

"I think I love you too."

* * *

Another short one, but I don't think that you will hold it against me. :)

And I will see your amazing faces next time,

Amber


	23. Reporter

I still haven't gone through the shows or the manga to look for this guys name, but I know that it will probably be something simple and easy to remember, but I just refer to him as the "COOL Guy" in my head. I think that I was very successful in not mentioning the man's name in this entire chapter.

So, all of my writers that read my memos, I have a challenge for you. Only take it up if you REALLY want to. I just want to see what other people think of this prompt. Some background knowledge: I have been obsessing over the Dragonball franchise lately and I have this aching curiosity about what would happen if Saiyans were exposed to things that have happened lately in my life. So, with no further ado, this is the prompt that I challenge you to write: Saiyans at a Drag Show.

* * *

**PART TWENTY THREE: REPORTER**

"Wake up, Sis!" Shark burst into Yarrows room in their cabin. "There is an urgent meeting at the guild! We can't miss it."

Yarrow rolled over. She was intent on recovering all of her sleep from the mission that day. Shark came in and pulled her pillow out from under her head and pushed her off of her bed. Yarrow flopped to the floor with a heavy thunk.

"I will get a bowl of cold water to put your hand in if you don't wake up!" Shark seemed to sing as he passed the now-open door to Yarrow's bedroom. It annoyed Yarrow at how happy he was about torturing her. She looked at the clock. It was only seven in the morning. She also hated that he could be this happy this early.

Shark continued to talk to Yarrow. There wasn't much anything that he said that made her interested in waking up until he said, "I saw Natsu on the way here from the guild yesterday."

Yarrow rolled over. She knew that Shark was just saying things to make her wake up. She was sure that he was saying things that insinuated there was some adult activities between the two. She kicked off her blanket that she was tangled in. She made a face towards the door. Shark passed by again and saw that she wasn't going to disclose anything.

Yarrow stopped her efforts to untangle herself from the blanket, she didn't fall asleep in her bed last night. Natsu and Happy accompanied her to her house the previous evening, but they mostly stayed in the living room. She remembered weird sensations, like smelling smoke or vanilla and being moved around like a puppet. One of the two must have carried her to her room to sleep.

She smiled as she figured the more likely of the two was Natsu. She successfully untangled the blanket and got up.

Her smile faded, she also remembered having a dream about the two of them going on a date, and her confessing her love to him.

Yarrow slammed her door shut, suddenly flushed.

"You better not be going back to sleep in there!" Shark pounded on the door. He knew that she just shut the door to change or something. He liked annoying her in the mornings.

Yarrow racked her brain, she wanted to make sure that it remained in her subconscious mind. Something nagged at her, making her think that it was real. Hopefully she hadn't scared Natsu off.

How was it possible not to love the pink haired boy? Yarrow had always admired him, thinking that he was the perfect role model. Not only was he a good role model in his magic abilities, but in his personality and faithfulness to the guild and to his nakama. Everything he did was saturated with something that meant more to him than anybody else. He has a drive in everything that he does, something that silently stands beside him and urges him on. Whatever that was, his passion about everything is worth remembering, is worth loving.

* * *

Yarrow trudged to the guild with sleepy eyes. It better be a damn good reason for them to call her to the guild on her day to recover her sleep from the mission. After her sudden realization that morning, she was constantly blushing. Her face would turn a darker shade whenever she thought of the fire mage. Though her mind was racing, her body still responded minimally to what Yarrow instructed it to do. She was still exhausted from the week before.

Shark was chipper and walking ahead of her. Her previous thoughts from the morning had died down, there was only one way to know if she said that she loved him aloud or not. Now she was just mulling over the fact that she, in fact, loved the simple minded idiot. The only other beings that she loved were her dad, Kohaku, and Shark. It was an interesting feeling to add another person to the list.

"I am going to go get some food, I'll meet you there!" Shark declared as he veered away from the path they normally took through town to get to their guild. Yarrow was about to turn around and walk back to her bed when Shark added, "Natsu said he was excited to see you when I saw him this morning!"

Yarrow turned and glared daggers at her brother's back. He knew exactly the right strings to pull to get her to do what he wanted her to do. She stood there for a moment, knowing that she would eventually get to the guild. She walked slowly in the direction of the heart of the city.

She showed up at the front door and there was a commotion from inside. Confused, but still tired, Yarrow pushed the door open.

"Yarrow! You're here!" Natsu ran up to her. He grabbed her wrist and dragged her to a corner of the guild quickly. The abduction happened so quick, it outpaced the blood rushing to her face. Romeo was sitting in the corner where Natsu had dragged her. He laughed and teased Yarrow about how she was there but was sleepwalking.

Yarrow somehow manages to calm down enough to notice the complete chaos that the guild was in. She honestly didn't know what was going on in the guild. Almost everybody was here and the girls were all dressed very nice. She saw a man that she didn't ever want to see.

"Is that Yarrow? Cool!" Yarrows face fell as the reporter from Sorcerer Magazine sprinted over to her.

"What do you want?" Both Yarrow and Natsu glared at the man. Romeo continued his previous mission to do the word search in the paper.

"You are so cool! Is this your declaration that you joined Fairy Tail?" The man started scribbling in his notebook fast enough that Yarrow swore that she saw sparks fly.

"What are you saying? Yarrow has always been in Fairy Tail!" Natsu glared at the man, knowing that Yarrow was barely awake and bordering on incapable of responding to the reporter.

"You never asked what guild I was in, you just assumed that Shark and I were freelance mages," Yarrow continued to glare at the man. She yawned and propped her head up with her arm against the table. She was slowly waking up, having recovered some of her energy.

"You are so cool! That was my fault as a reporter!" The man was enthusiastically crying. "The mage with a heart of gold is here, is the other half of The Horned Devils here?"

"Yes, Shark has always been a mage of Fairy Tail too. Who gave me that weird name? I don't like it. Don't you dare call me that again," Yarrow never heard of this new name of the 'Mage with a heart of gold' shenanigans. The man looked at the two mages now fuming at him. His eyes darted between the two.

"Are the rumors true? Are you and the Salamander really dating? That is so cool!" The reporter took out his camera and took a picture of the two glaring at the man, "How does your partner and lover, Shark, feel about this?"

"If you ever paid attention to what I said, you would know that Shark and I have never gone out. He is my team mate, my brother!" Yarrow was about to strike the man. She was beyond wondering how the reporter knew about them. He was here for a while, some of the other mages must have mentioned something.

"Cool! He must be heartbroken!" The man started to take pictures of the angry mages, "Natsu, how do you feel about your lover being so close with her ex."

Natsu was glowering at the man, ready to give him a firey slap in the face.

Shark was the one that saved the reporter from the wrath of the two Dragon Slayers, "Hey, we told you before that we were never dating."

"It's Shark! _The_ Shark!" The man started taking pictures of the shirtless boy that just walked in.

"You tricked me!" Yarrow turned her anger on her brother. "When you woke me up, you said that it was an urgent meeting regarding our last mission!"

The statement sent the reporter in a frenzy, "Do you two live together? Does Natsu approve? This is so cool! How was your last mission? I hear there is a new Dragon Slayer in Fairy Tail! Who is it? You all are so cool!"

Yarrow was glad that none of her other guild mates told the reporter that she is the Dragon Slayer that he was questioning about. For all the reporter knew, there were still many other members that didn't show up to the hall today.

Natsu jumped up, "You told me that this was an urgent meeting too! Bastard!" Natsu lunged over the table at the regeneration mage. Shark barely managed to dodge. They began to chase each other around the guild. The reporter was going crazy, declaring it was a fight over love.

Yarrow sighed. She went to the corner table, away from the fight and rested her head on the table.

She was followed by Romeo, but was otherwise left alone to think more about her realization from the previous night.

Gray came into the guild and saw Shark and Natsu fighting. Gray shed his shirt (for some reason) and joined the fight, declaring that Natsu was destroying the guild and telling Shark to stop copying him with taking off his clothes.

Cana walked over to Yarrow and sat next to her, "I thought you said we wouldn't see you for a while." Cana took a drink from her bottle. Romeo laughed in his seat next to the two.

"Shark tricked me into coming in for the reporter or something," Yarrow muttered. She just wanted to go home and sleep. She was on the brink of falling back into dreamland while talking to Cana.

Suddenly, there was a louder crash than normal in the guild as Natsu and Shark flipped a table over in their fight. The table began to fly towards Yarrow and Cana. Cana deflected it and started yelling at the fighting boys. Any other day, Yarrow would have joined in the fight, but she was just far too tired.

Suddenly, Cana was trying to subdue Gray. Lucy was attempting to tell Natsu to calm down. Shark and Natsu were still fighting as Cana moved quickly and was soon restraining Gray. Yarrow figured that she would attempt to stop it before another table flew at her head.

She reached out her hand and began to concentrate on the bones that she coated in Natsu. Natsu was about to start throwing magic enforced punches and kicks at the regeneration mage, but he suddenly stopped moving for a moment. He looked down at his hands surprised. He then half walked and half slid in the direction of Yarrow.

"Be quiet, please?" Yarrow pleaded with Natsu. Lucy took the opportunity to restrain Shark. Natsu looked very surprised at the bone mage. The reporter was having a hayday interviewing the restrained Shark and Gray. Yarrow stopped concentrating on the bones in the Fire Dragon Slayer. He exhaled sharply and moved his arms, shaking off the feeling.

"You got better at that. It didn't hurt nearly as much as it did on the mission," Natsu muttered, "Not that I am complaining, you did save my life and all." All of his fight was gone from him as he sat down next to the bone mage. She rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, glad to have him close to her.

"I didn't even know that it hurt you the first time," Yarrow sighed in his shoulder. He would have made it well known if she was hurting him to the point where he wouldn't be able to handle. He wrapped his arm around her back, knowing that she was tired. He was still tired from the job too. Shark had come to his door early that morning and told him to get to the guild as fast as he could, that there was an emergency meeting.

Natsu wouldn't have minded being woken up early if he hadn't stayed up all night thinking about what Yarrow sleep-said to him. He smiled and looked down at her. He wished that she would hurry up and sleep so that he could quiz her to see if she really meant what she said.

Romeo struck up a conversation with Natsu while Yarrow teetered on the edge of consciousness.

"You two are just so COOL!" There was a bright flash the illuminated the two. The reporter had come back to the corner and pressured the two for an interview. Lucy came over and was trying to get the attention of the reporter. The last time that the reporter was at Fairy Tail, she was completely ignored. This time wasn't much different.

Gajeel walked in, saving Yarrow and Natsu from an onslaught of questions from the obnoxious reporter. He wildly ran over to the Iron Dragon Slayer to see what information he can squeeze out of him.

"I don't think that it's fair," Natsu stated suddenly after a moment of silence. There was a pout in his voice. Yarrow was almost too tired to respond to him but she "hummed" to him to let him know that she was listening. "You can control me like a puppet, but I can't control you. Wanna try putting fire in your bones, see if that works the same way?"

Yarrow jumped out of her seat when she felt Natsu's hand catch on fire. She knew better than to put it past the pyromaniac to try to put his fire in her bones. She quickly backed away from him with a wary smile on her face, "Let's not get rash, Natsu."

"Don't you mean 'Master Natsu'?" He lit his other hand on fire and slowly stalked after the bone mage. He had a sly grin plastered on his face.

Yarrow looked at him for a moment. Her hand shot up to her neck to find the collar was still on her neck. She sighed, "What if I don't want to call you Master anymore? We aren't on the mission anymore. So technically, I don't need to."

"Then I would say you don't have a choice," Natsu started to follow her a little faster than she was walking. Yarrow responded by quickening her backwards pace.

"Well, it's not going to happen, Natsu," Yarrow said, defiantly not addressing him as Master.

Yarrow almost backed into Lucy, who was still fighting for the attention of the reporter. Yarrow took the opportunity of the second that Natsu looked to his partner to see if she was okay to run. She bolted for the open door and slid out. She knew that Natsu was faster and more agile than she was, so she tried to lose him.

She could say that she tried to outrun him. She really did try to, but there was something in his pursuit that made it more of a game. She was sure that all thoughts of him trying to control her by putting his flames in her bones were gone.

The citizens of Magnolia were paying no mind to the two mages running around the city. At some point, their innocent game of chase morphed into one sided hide-and-go-seek. Yarrow would hide in a bush or in a clothing rack in a store and the Fire Dragon Slayer would sniff her out. She would squeak in alarm when he found her and take off again to find another hiding spot.

She loved the fact that the two of them could play these childish games together. She took off running to find another hiding spot when she saw a tuft of pink hair over the crowd. She took off running towards the north of town.

She would drag this game out as long as she could.

* * *

I will be studying for finals for the next week. I will TRY to get the next chapter edited before Wednesday, but if I dont, know that it is on it's way.

See you next time,

Amber


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